Aubade at Bosque Redondo

Almost nothing has changed
about the world. We're still bound
to go on having this hunch

everything has left us or is waiting
for the worst possible moment to do so. 
It's still our custom as a people

to measure our lives by our longing,
our longing by our treasure, our treasure
by the little pieces of jewelry

we let slip out of our hands
and clink down the drain, gone forever.
The prevailing theory is that if we try

hard enough an entire history
of diamond stud earrings will gurgle
forth, as lonely for us as we are for them.

The airplanes of America disembark.
The passengers look up, sensing the first
inch toward that next city. 

Copyright Credit: Carrie Fountain, "Aubade at Bosque Redondo" from Burn Lake . Copyright © 2010  by Carrie Fountain.  Reprinted by permission of Penguin Random House LLC.