Near to Speech as Rain: Kevin Devaney

March 30, 2020 Kate Belew with Kevin Devaney (Stuck in St. Petersburg, FL and low key freaking out about it)

Listen, there are things I still need to say. 

before we change our permanent address to despair,

long afternoons on the balcony,
stand there with me and listen, I'm as near to speech as rain

and almost as drowning. I wonder how to tell that I am

under wave and bluest as that there night. 

as it crests over evening,

into, oh, a babble of stars.  Stand here and wait and I will tell you

of the muchness I am feeling, and with attempt to say

that this is not really about me, or us, at all. 

And if the afternoon is gone, it is gone.

I am making peace with those two blue bodies: above, below.