“What the Seas Would Make Us.” A Poem By CJ Evans

I don’t know how to tell you about
the rain. It falls as if all these woods

weren’t owned. It bends the arcs
of meteorites and flies, invites

uninhibited fucking on blankets of fir
needles. That night in Harlem we didn’t

kiss: this lifetime of lovely almost-but-
never pain is the rain’s. I want it to riot

at my small end, loose in the flowers
that’ll roof my grave. If we stop

with all these buildings and laptops
and flashing LEDs—all our

ceaseless wanting—this rain will
grow us a world new, naked and wild.

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Excerpted from Lives by CJ Evans, published by Sarabande Books.