The Myth of Virginia
I imagined the yard today as a copy of itself
from the day before—its only differences
so minuscule they’d be invisible if they weren’t
so large in my imagined absence—the same
old gestures, twitches, and pauses of the birds
and squirrels on the branches of the maples
and birches, so close to where they’d been
just yesterday, but different now without a sign.
I stared at a sycamore whose leaves were flames
for the only reason I needed to know that they
consumed all things in the guise of leaves
and because I needed to keep the blue flame
blue that burns to the highest degree on the gas
of loss. I called it nothing with a hand above it
I couldn’t see. There was a space at the table
for a child whose face I’d already seen.
Who had arrived with a smile in the shape
of a blade. I composed a psalm because
I longed to make up a story that wasn’t true
but also was about a lovesick king who said,
I’m poured out like water and all my bones are out
of joint; my heart is like wax. Who turned
into a cardinal when he died and then
fell like an arrow through the sky,
turning as he fell into a drop of blood
that stained the earth of all Virginia.
CHARD DENIORD is the author of nine books of poetry, most recently Westminster West (Tupelo Press, 2024), One As Other (Green Writers Press), and In My Unknowing (University of Pittsburgh Press 2020). He is also the author of two books of interviews with eminent American poets: Sad Friends, Drowned Lovers, Stapled Songs, Conversations and Reflections on 20th Century Poetry (Marick Press, 2011) and I Would Lie To You If I Could (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018). deNiord is Professor Emeritus of English and Creative Writing at Providence College and the co-founder of The New England College MFA Program. From 2015 to 2019 he served as poet laureate of Vermont. He lives in Westminster West, Vermont with his wife, Liz.