/COURTNEY

WALKING THE PLOTS

There or there. No. Here
 is where you’ll find me—
tomorrow or next year—maybe centuries
from now, atomized beneath white pines,

where wasps perform their senseless surgeries
in air. Earth, be compassionate. Be fair: If I chose
soil over urn, make me a cradle there.

Like a needle desperate for the vein, loosen
these remains beneath the shovel’s blade.
Believe me when I say: I will raise 
the very ground

and scrape away a throne’s worth of golden clay
if it means I can touch the feather
 of a nerve
or hear her name again.
 If it means that only ruin

and I remain.


Brandon Courtney is the author of The Grief Muscles and Rooms for Rent in the Burning City. YesYes Books published his chapbook, Inadequate Grave (2016), and will publish his third book in 2019.