Turning a Corner

Five years into your child’s illness,

when you can no longer conceive of life

without its dank presence, you see

a blanched sky bearing a trace of rose

and the moon, risen huge—

an affront like your lover’s face

turned toward you for the last time,

his sweet, rescinded body a scaffold

you once clung to. Radiant in departure,

he gazed back, bright as this orb God raises

to say, Look. This is what I can do.

This is what I refuse to do for you.

“Turning a Corner” first appeared in B O D Y.