"On Witness" by Ruben Quesada

Ruben Quesada

Ruben Quesada

Ruben Quesada is the author of Next Extinct Mammal (2011) and Luis Cernuda: Exiled from the Throne of Night (2008). His writing appears in The American Poetry Review, Cimarron Review, The California Journal of Poetry & Poetics, and elsewhere. He teaches at Eastern Illinois University.

On Witness
            For Paul Monette

Dear Stranger,

Remind me of a time when love tucked us back into the earth without care; where and when
daily we awoke to discover friendly faces gone, silent bodies drawn at dawn. Look out. See the
flattened clouds fill the horizon; it is a gray so slick you can see your smile reflected in winter’s
glen; you’ve become the sky, your face filling the heavens. All that is left is the faint smell of
lavender lingering like a bruise. I refuse to lose you.