STIRRING
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
SCOTT WEAVER
I woke up today with my mind
in Sperryville, Virginia, despite my body,
the rest of me, and time.
Remember? We’d agreed to make our homes
the same home here, not the first time
either of us tried this trick and failed.
Faith is stupid and dangerous
but we set to work in different rooms that year
on different stories. Upstairs, downstairs
we met each evening to cook and talk, amazed
there still existed words the other had not heard
day after day in these woods alone, thrilled
by nights when words blinked mute.
If there’s a spell that can conjure those days,
front-porch coffee plus autumn chill, American Spirits,
menthol, too much air in the propane tank under the deck,
if we leave it all as an offering at the one gas station/
post office/country store that sold samosas, 3 bucks each,
and chant words of hope that return us to 2005, would you?
Think carefully. Each tragedy and joy run back,
run through. No faith needed. We already know
the story, Love, how it ends, at least the first two acts.
In this spell, we are promised exactly what’s to come.
Another walk across a frozen field to watch
the horses, your old dog ready to bolt, his name
stitched now in our mouths, each step
a step away from our unraveling.
Once more, my love, under the down blanket
against December, no money
for the month after the half-cord of pine.
This life is a game I would play again
and again, rewind the tape, study strategy,
learning to love you better sooner, better now.
Whisper those words, make your offering. Spirits,
show us once again these days of love
and its uncertainty. Let my chest hum
with questions, take away my future.
Let me never forget those days of want and hunger,
help me tend, forever, my desire.
Scott Weaver's nonfiction and poems have appeared in Catapult, Slate, Rattle, The New York Quarterly, DIAGRAM, UCity Review, and other journals. His book of poems, Home & Ghost, is available from Urban Farmhouse Press. You can read more of his work at scott-weaver.com.
