When I think about eels, I think about
how I’ve never seen one.
But although I’ve not seen you healthy,
I can envision your body blooming
with legs sturdy and strong. You will sing
and you will sing loud. The deadbeat hand
that kept you seated for years will disappear
and fall into tiny particles I vacuum up.
You will stand tall, sing loud, walk long,
walk as long as my heart grows fields for you,
grows roads for you, streets, lanes.
Anywhere you go – North to the Upper Peninsula,
East to the bells of Philadelphia, South to the
Florida dolphins, West to the breathing Rockies –
you will never be more than ten feet from me
in your radiating body, body new, body splendidly im-
perfect; your hand never has to be so far
from mine again.
So although I have never seen eels,
I can imagine the life in you, I can imagine
your entire blissful future because
I imagine myself in it with you.

02/11/2008

Posted on 02/12/2008
Copyright © 2024 Lisa Marie Brodsky