Then-Wife

Everything is an omen but doesn't know it,
which is the opposite of the Butterfly Effect

since things don't always have to have happened.
In hindsight, everything is an omen of everything

that comes after it, regardless of cause.
Or regardmore. There, I've coined it.

Everything has been coined at some point—
words and what they stand for. With eyes.

Also, things don't any less have happened
the further in time you get from them—

even memories only ever happened
right now. I was once in a room so hot

and crowded that our sweat condensed
on the ceiling and rained back down.

I think of this every time
I walk beneath a dripping

window unit.






From The Arrangements (Four Way Books, 2018). All rights reserved. Reprinted with the permission of the author.