Previously appeared in Letters from Camp Rehoboth

Please be sure of one thing
Be as certain as something floating through clouds
That I’ll come back completely
I must I have to
And above all please stay new and ready
Because this chance this close this hill
So wanting in the distance
So fearful near my hands
Means I will and surely —
There’s no other arrow

Never let me leave
And as I’m going
Remember that
Whether far is in the middle
Or I’m all around
There’s meant to be
That’s under
Stay terribly with me

It’s May
Most things are full of willing but wrong
And I’m not sure of what to do
With so much crumbling in the air
I would do anything to be your circle coming back

Please just now be me –
Be me so that somehow I’ll glimmer back after all
For you
From the other side of rain.

Hiram Larew‘s sixth collection, Patchy Ways, was published by CyberWit Press in 2023. As founder of Poetry X Hunger, he’s bringing a world of poets to the anti-hunger cause. Find him at http://www.HiramLarewPoetry.com and Poetry X Hunger at http://www.PoetryXHunger.com