Dara Wier
The Italics Are Mine!

There was breathing but there were no bodies

Anywhere to be found & so we switched ourselves

Down a couple of notches and we barely moved

And we really listened and this time we really

Listened in case we could catch a glimpse or

Get an inkling or see something around the edges

Of everything available & then some, so we

Stayed tamped and dampened and tuned which was

Fine which was what was needed to remind us

How silent a submarine can be & how slowly one

One can remove a glove if one wants to remove a glove

Very slowly one finger at a time almost reluc-

Tantly if at all, so we waited better than we’d

Ever waited before or since & then some meteors

Started streaking into earth’s atmosphere leaving

Long broad gauze trails in their wakes in every

Direction we turned to look much of the breathing

We’d half-dreaded had materialized, gasps, audible

Awes, little sighs, pink squeals, now and then

Chrashingly thunderous rounds of applause almost,

Shocking, and it was.

 
Found In Volume 32, No. 02
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  • Dara Wier
Dara Wier
About the Author

Dara Wier’s most recent book is Remnants of Hannah (Wave Books, 2006).  Her work has been supported by the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.  Her poems featured in The American Poetry Review were awarded the 2001 Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize; recent work has been selected for Best American Poetry 2002 and The Pushcart Prize 2002. She teaches in the program for poets and writers at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.