I See Them Now

American Poetry Review, The, Jan/Feb 2004 by deNiord, Chard

the invisible bodies rising

from the ground. How slowly

they lift themselves at first

to their elbows, as if they were

still bodies, then suddenly

to their knees, faster and faster,

until they free themselves

from the earth, higher and higher,

these blessed bodies speeding

like arrows toward a hole

in the sky, which is the sky

now that they are rising,

gaining a new oblivious

knowledge as they rise

of what it means to slip away,

to be forgotten, to say

good bye without ever saying it,

burning as they rise, hotter

and hotter, on the one drop of fuel

that stayed inside them.