THE THING

Words are more interesting

when they reflect something

real—a confession of guilt,

a secret revealed—

so it’s too bad

what’s realest to me

is the fence I have built

between myself and reality.

I built it because

I was trying to escape this thing

but the shape of the thing

kept changing.

I would move away from it

but then suddenly awayness

would become part

of what the thing was,

so in fact I had only

moved deeper into its grip.

Anyway, it’s not so bad

being enclosed in the fence.

I march around in here like a general.

I spend whole mornings

thinking about a single email.

I gather drops of dew

off the tips of blades of grass

and sew them into little veils.

Plus you can still love people.

You just have to give them

surprisingly explicit

verbal directions

on how to get around the fence.

Otherwise you will

never fully be together

and it will be your fault,

not theirs.

Mikko Harvey is the author of Let the World Have You (2022) and Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit (2018), both published by House of Anansi. He lives in Easthampton, Massachusetts.