As If There Were Lessons
Those were the hours, infected,
we were aware of her body, the fever
wringing out the cloth of her, the sheets
a witness. This was a skirmish
in a war of attrition—win the day,
ignore the lost cause. Is this the lesson?
When I was five, I’d sit on the curb
with a paperclip hook on a string
to fish the storm drain. What is empathy
if not a found treasure? After illness,
sun. That’s what I mean: the lesson
a tchotchke. And her body,
a bird from the nest, as if falling
is what’s meant by all this time.
David O’Connell’s work has appeared in New Ohio Review, The Cincinnati Review, Copper Nickel, Sugar House, and North American Review, among other journals. His first full-length collection, Our Best Defense, is forthcoming in 2021 from Červená Barva Press. More of his work can be found at davidoconnellpoet.com.