Such Gossamer Saints: Hayden Bowen

April 18, 2020 Kate Belew With Hayden Bowen (Los Angeles)

I leave 'thank you' at the altar of 

such gossamer saints as worth and dignity 

dried mugwort, this salt, water from thunder 

I gather memories both imagined and real 

a stranger than fiction, this life 

unfolding alone and together like nested opposites 

a true cleaving, unlike what happened before

this time the shattering was hidden in a droplet or two

of whatever was left in me to give

but such soldiering gave way to baking and flower arranging 

and cleaning the windows with careful rags 

I scrub at my mind even more

a wish to create something untarnished, copper  

unspoiled, unimpaired, thus unanswered by the past

I summon that unimagined moment forward.