To Aaron on His Birthday (Poem for Amanda)

something tells me there
is a code to speak in as I spill
coffee on the memory all of us
around a table screaming about
grief in a quiet way passing
something to inhale this year
was quicksand in slow-mo
we watched the tussle through
the screen you wading in whiskey
from too many miles away
there was little to be done
but mail postcards of birds
practice our recitations
incantations you will feel
better in time the roundness
of bullshit it’s possible to miss
what you didn’t even have
and you really had something
in time it’s time to take
a cab through the park eat
an animal with a name
be deliberate in how
you look for signs some-
times the bread gets burnt
and we eat it anyway
she would’ve made a card
for this day she makes
the sky now forces a particular
color story like pay attention
to me of course we do
 
 
 
Anna Meister is author of the chapbook NOTHING GRANTED (dancing girl press, 2016) & holds an MFA in poetry from NYU. Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Kenyon Review, Barrow Street, Tinderbox, & elsewhere. Anna lives in Des Moines, IA, & at www.anna-meister.com.