I Cannot Feel the Water: Jessica de Koninck

April 24, 2020, Kate Belew With Jessica de Koninck

Listen, there is nothing out there quite like 

You expected when you left this morning

a different kind of silence than this or that. I notice

the geese on the pond, the lilacs, but

they are the same and today I am different. 

What I see, what I hear, tell me

that I am different. I wade into the pond 

I cannot feel the water. I cannot

fathom what comes next for us.

We speak from behind dark masks, the sound

of pans out the window at 7pm a tender reminder 

that there were strings of days before

and if we gather our stars together gratefully 

the necklace of their lights will

be a careful message that home is wherever 

the path of our small wanderings

carry us, a kind river.