Poetry June 2011 | issue 426

Previous Love

by Keith Althaus

KEITH ALTHAUS is the author of two books of poetry, Rival Heavens and Ladder of Hours. He lives with his wife on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, where they run an art gallery.

All selections by this author

Previous love,
think of the sky
above us still,
the parade
of clouds here,
the starlit evening
there, and this one
breath expelled
that you might
catch someday
on a street corner
after its long journey
across miles of ocean,
fields, and woods
that comb it,
take out the scent,
the taste, the sweet
stuff, until
there’s nothing left
of me or this place,
or just enough
to make you think,
standing on the curb,
waiting for the light,
of me, and us.