Sarah A. Chavez – Because There is Shadow, I Know There is Light

Sarah A. Chavez

Because There is Shadow, I Know There is Light

I am envious of my younger self 
for whom death turned our face 
toward the light of poetry. Older 

me, me of now: death is the shadow 
cast from the hulk of an impossibly 
wide trunk, bark: thick scales and time 

hardened; branch: crinkle-crackle 
misdirection. Poetry seems just 

out of arm’s length, a bird in flight 
I am too heavy to follow. 

Solace instead, a blank stare: out 
a window, against a wall—looking 
into nothing. Death nothing, nothing 

but death; it will ravage us all
is no longer a phrase people just say.
The priest at the pulpit says 

that eternity is love for those who die 
in remorse—I am sorry for so much.