Neither Going Nor Coming (Kismet)

 

Laura Manuelidis

Originally published in The Evergreen Review Issue 122 in March, 2010.
 

I arrived where I had been
Not where I came from
Another night with its yellowed sun
Thistles:     Six of them:

I arrived by flight
At the same place where day was no longer possible
     to lean against.
Brightness extended very slowly
Dying: nowhere in sight

I arrived where I was supposed to be
     —All the time—
A transparency without influence I slid into your eye:
Then watched every alternative
Become the Same: