May desire be as pleasurable as its fantasies.
May the fullness of our suffering, the lack at the heart
of it, ring us around the edge of pressure and relief
and idly past it. May we be admitted to dim rooms
of alone, finally and not meet disappointment in
our long wants. A prude lashing of rain. A bone-marrow chill
with no remedy but the bright green time that will come when
we know one another no longer and tan carelessly
in our gardens, wiping from our vague faces the ready
juice of stone fruits, thinking of nothing, not even the birds.

Constance Hansen is the Assistant Managing Editor of Poetry Northwest. Her poetry has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Harvard Review Online, Southern Humanities Review, River Mouth Review, EcoTheo Review, and Moist Poetry Journal. She lives in Seattle with her family, where she teaches poetry at the Hugo House and writes about climate for the weather service Currently.