from “A Practical Guide to Hand Analysis”

[border] If the line of uncertainty starts

at the wrong side of the hand

Amy Beeder

 

then ventures far & hatches afield indistinguishable
in the palm’s atlas, it may be time to avoid certain
crossroads or bright corridors, to lower your voice
& remember what I told you: people will forget you if
you don’t look in their face that we may hold abeyant
the day we can no longer porch-smoke, bickering
over rapid transit or whether Lorca’s overrated—
when I say all this is only bluster you will say no
the exit is too far & this map devoid of any genuine
attraction, key or certain destiny except the moment
when I must pretend that I don’t see you & we will
never speak again the tongue of our invented past
as we did that time when days went on forever—

 
 

Amy Beeder’s third book, “And So Wax Was Made & Also Honey,” is forthcoming from Tupelo Press in 2020. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Kenyon Review, Denver Quarterly, AGNI, and elsewhere. She lives in Albuquerque.