If you are reading this
I hope you are going slow,
that the gulls have clasped
their constant beaks. If
the roads are icy, test
the brakes when you are alone
see if you slide. Leave
the fools and cowboys
to their wreckage
if you are reading this
it is time to know when
I put the box together,
I folded the cardboard
as if I was inside the box. I know
there were days when you
wished me in the box as well
once driving you to school I forgot
I was bringing you to school
and delivered you to work
by mistake. The same drive I made daily.
Not because I forgot you were there
but you being made me feel
enough like myself to continue
I could have driven you anywhere
I do not know where we would go
what place at the end of the world
would have been vast and silent enough
for me to take your hand, for me to say.
~ Ryan Van Winkle
Ryan Van Winkle is Poet in Residence at Edinburgh City Libraries. His first collection, ‘Tomorrow, We Will Live Here’, was published by Salt in 2010 and his poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, AGNI, Poetry New Zealand and The Oxford Poets series.
