"I'm Not Faking My Astonishment, Honest" by Paige Lewis

January 9, 2023

I’m Not Faking My Astonishment, Honest

Paige Lewis

Looking out over the cliff, we’re overwhelmed
by a sky that seems to heap danger upon us. We
end up staring at a single white fluff in the air—
feather, fur, dandelion puff—we don’t care
to define it. The relief of having something
to focus our attention. At home, our patio furniture
unscrews itself under the usual sun. On this trip—
well, I’m not any sadder, I just have more space
for my sadness to fill. I don’t want to give
particulars. A woman huffing up the trail behind
us says to her hiking partner, It wasn’t my size,
but it was only 9 dollars. And now all I want
is to see what it is. The future refuses
to happen, so where else should I turn?

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“A few years ago, I bought a cheap table for the back patio, and every few days it would lose a bolt, a nut, or both. Eventually it collapsed, but someone on Craigslist wanted the scraps. I hope that person is living a good life with my terrible patio table.”
—Paige Lewis

Paige Lewis is the author of Space Struck (Sarabande Books, 2019). They live and teach in Iowa.

Space Struck
(Sarabande Books, 2019)

“A blurry photograph” by Martha Ronk
read more

“Hello, New Year” by Marc
McKee
read more

Thanks to Tyree Daye, author of Cardinal (Copper Canyon Press, 2019), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read or listen to a Q&A about Daye’s curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year.

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