Into Knowing – a poem by Sarah A. Etlinger

Into Knowing

Let me imagine you
as shadows, as soft hair
and glass,
as heavy whispers
trying to span the spaces
between what we can be
and the world at sleep–

our sins only
that we are praying
at all, asking with compass hearts
for time, time–bundled hours
where we can mend holes,
watch gravity pass us
on its hurtle;

let me imagine you
as a long pause
in the sentence we could,
would become, if only loss
were not so dear,
if love were ever just.

Instead, we have only
the stain of ethics,
the weight of truth and light.

But the morning lifts
its skirt, sometimes,
to reveal where we might
enter: brief clutches
of breath and cadence,
into knowing.

Sarah A. Etlinger is an English professor who resides in Milwaukee, WI. A Pushcart-nominated poet, she is author of two chapbooks: Never One for Promises (Kelsay Books, 2018) and Little Human Things (Clare Songbirds, forthcoming Fall 2019). You can find her work in places like Neologism Poetry Journal, The Magnolia Review, and Brine.