Heliopause by Heather Christle

In seeking to resolve a conflict
    between two parties
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â one can assume
    each believes it is acting
    in good faith
    Â Â just as the hopeful
    gravel waits for your rough step
    â–´
    The only way to be truly alone
    is for there to be nothing
    not even myself
    â–´
    In looping you rephrase after listening
    to what the person has to say
    what the person had to say
    and having the new words affirmed
    you wait and listen again
    â–´
    Myself the eager magnet
    for another to address
    â–´
    Maybe I should think this a spiral
    a loop that gets closer
    a loop that will not close
    â–´
    To make nothing
    draw a circle
    around what isn’t there
    â–´
    I found a note I left in the corner
    of a part of the poem we rarely used
    If you ever feel trapped
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â it said
    this is where to escape
    â–´
    But legally I owe you nothing
    I owe you at least that much
    â–´
    Like being haunted by the spirit of the letter
    â–´
    I remember my teacher’s story
    of two teenagers who died in a blizzard
    trying to stay warm
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â and the tailpipe
    blocked with snow
    so I always check
    but it still happens
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â just yesterday
    a man’s young son in what the paper
    called one awful story
    â–´
    The light switch has a beautiful feeling
    when a person reaches out to make it change
    and the warm quadrangles of sun
    on the carpet are beautiful too
    and red berries on the gray bush
    and the mail as long as it lasts
    and beauty is what beauty does to you
    â–´
    Like trying to say a seagull
    inscribing a circle
    over what land
    the day has thought
    to provide
    â–´
    to enter into agreement with yourself
    to lie but only out of love
    for the verblessness of buildings
    They do not rise except once
    and then nothing
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â how being is nothing
    and if there were a word after
    it would be a slow decay
    â–´
    I will love across any distance
    you think this has made to occur
    â–´
    Nothing so ruthless as a life
    â–´
    The day hangs low overhead
    and soon enough the new grass will emerge
    through the gravel
    They have big plans to meet
    in the middle
    Â Â and in so doing
    to phase all this out
    â–´
    I go on
    Â Â Â Â say enough and it will blur
    off into sound
    Â Â Â look up and see that night
    has nearly settled in and darkness
    and hope that if I look into it
    long enough and keep my mouth
    quiet
    Â when I look down again I’ll find
    a settled word
    Â Â Â to which nothing
    is attached
    â–´
    Re: the day
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â someone said
    what doesn’t kill you makes it longer
    â–´
    It’s like footsteps toward you
    that sound for all the world like
    they forever move away
    â–´
    I keep forgetting I’m the smoke
    not the camera
    Â Â Â Â Then I see my dark
    joining sky to what’s below
    â–´
    Like watching someone
    from across a river
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â on such a clear day
    that you can see her teeth
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â and at such
    a distance
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â that you can’t hear the sound
    so while you know
    it must be screaming
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â it is possible
    to imagine her faraway mouth
    which you can see but not save
    has opened—is open—to sing
    â–´
    After the collapse and before
    the dust settles
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â the darkness billows
    and grows
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â like it’s describing
    itself to the sky
    Â Â Â  this it says
    this and much bigger
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â but the sky
    in its sorrow
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â has had to turn away
    â–´
    to