One condition of emergence is flight        like the inside of an inside joke       it’s a public private thing

like property         or a golf widow gazing         into her glass of gin         where does the time go

where the cardinal rule         of just don’t be a dick         is in effect         and the static in our song

is not cosmic code for longing         if weaponizing words         has failed to make us modern

we must sing on our own behalf         or take lovers who sing to us         read to us

poems about infinite love         of women with definite borders         whose lines run deep

enough to house the         blood to bridge the distance         that creates the loss

As ever,

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Tina Cane is a poet, teacher, and the founder/director of Writers-in-the-Schools in Rhode Island. She is the author of The Fifth Thought, and her poems have appeared in Spinning Jenny, Tupelo Quarterly, and Two Serious Ladies, among others.

“Letter for Elena Ferrante: Between Stations” originally appeared in Big Blue Whale (TLR, Summer 2016)

Read more of Tina Cane’s work here.