What is Beyond is an Unraveling: Theresa Senato Edwards

May 7, 2020 Kate Belew with Theresa Senato Edwards (Pawling, New York)

Whatever wanderer we are is one made from 

glass birds, peach tulips, and the history of polio,

and there are so many ways to tell this story. When

we started, just before spring, a weeping cherry tree 

looked at me and told me to grow up. 

Stop wandering, your lungs    are duct tape

and what is beyond is an unraveling of 

both of us. Just think see-through,   wings,    gurneys, 

and gloves, some stretch of imagination suggests

that cures are mixtures of rose water and fairy tale. 

And maybe they are right, I do not know. 

But summer’s coming,    and there are so many 

of us in the world. I worry about you. 

Worry about the ending of your story. You’re 

kind, too kind, for breaking, and wait 

don’t break anymore. Sleep, just until we’re made again.