Everything is named, labelled

accordingly. God-as-ever

invisible, but all the rest

is as well on the playing field

of immateriality’s realm,

like a grainy photograph

of an unreadable headline

and what’s cast in stark

contrast is the shadow.

After all’s been overlooked,

ferret the uncomfortable

contours, past actions

now in relief, memories

of silence thanks

to cowardice, self-

preserving to a fault.

Once the stuck drawer

of the repressed is

jimmied open—the juicy bits

plumbed, the muck of regret

rolled around in—

it’s time to get

up.  Make

good.

CYNTHIA HOGUE has published nine poetry collections, including Revenance (2014) and In June the Labyrinth (2017).  Her co-translations include Nathalie Quintane’s Jeanne Darc and Nicole Brossard’s Lointaines (forthcoming, Omnidawn). She lives in Tucson, Arizona.