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Mayfly

Anne Simpson

Let’s say you had three wishes.

I never know what to wish for.

Okay,
I’d like to be a mayfly. Sleeping
for three years in sand, then waking:
a few hours of gossamer life. Jewel-blue wings.
Maybe that.

I told you I never know what to wish for.

Two?

Why are you asking me all these questions?

Three?

I’d like you to come over here
and hold my face
as if it were a cup of rain that you’re trying to carry
without spilling,
or a nest of warm goslings, or
the Tisza River, which I’m reading about,
shivering with thousands
of wings, a radiance of mayflies. Yes, just like that,

comb your hands through
my hair, take me
into the bedroom, close the door.


Anne Simpson

from Mayfly (Jackpine Press, Saskatchewan, 2004)

Reproduced by permission of the publisher.

Tags:

Canadian poetry desire fragility tenderness
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Anne Simpson

Anne Simpson is a writer and visual artist who lives in northeastern Nova Scotia. She has taught and been writer-in-residence at various Canadian universities. Her second collection of poetry, Loop (McClelland & Stewart, 2003), was nominated for the Governor...
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