We Come from A Country

by Anna Halberstadt

of damaged people
the people
who damage others
who are capable
for the most part
of destruction
and self-destruction.
The moon is still intact
and so is
the blackness of trees
on Washington Square
in the still
of the night.
And
yellow and purple pansies
in the stone vase
are as miraculous
as the new flowers
of each spring
always seem.
We come from a place
where love was extinguished
eliminated
replaced by addiction
to eating each other’s bodies
in lonely rapture
exasperated.
Remember
our amazement
and
how time stood still
when
we first touched?