January 18, 2023 - “Things I Didn’t Ask For” by Rahil Najafabadi

THINGS I DIDN’T ASK FOR

They are plenty, the unimagined light and the new part
in the sky that breaks the night unevenly. The new year
started without me ending the last with a deep breath.

I know the cycle of knowing and forgetting, yet thinking
that the absence of truth fills in the time between us
is like walking too early before the sun touches the ground.

Perhaps the sound of uncertainty will cease––it is silence.
I need to hear the winter trees greet each other even in death,
with the cold air between them like the time between us.