After Joan Didion’s “Goodbye to All That”
Not easy to see new beginnings here—
morning sun making a quick pass by my airshaft,
signaling rats to end their all-night party.
A plastic lamp with a timer—sunrise simulation,
bird chirps optional—lets me know it’s a new day,
and today made the daffodils on my dresser
explode into a dozen magic wands.
I picked one from the vase.
I asked it what to ask for.
It told me to ask for what’s right here—
warm air smelling of mildew,
scuffle of coupling doves,
and the man who brought me the flowers.
He held them out to me like a prize,
and I knew right then I still believed
in possibilities, still had the sense
something extraordinary might happen here.
Jeanne-Marie Osterman is author of four poetry collections, including Shellback (Paloma Press), named by Kirkus Reviews a top 100 indie press book of 2021, and All Animals Want the Same Things, winner of the Slipstream Press Annual Chapbook Competition. A Joy Harjo Award finalist, she lives in New York City where she is poetry editor for Cagibi, a journal of poetry and prose.