ELEMENTAL

by Kate Knapp Johnson

It's simple as water, easy
as wings
wind-held over the shoreline
to love you, pure coasting—

as well as difficult; for example,
this furious business
in the peonies, bee-swept and heavy—

but to love them regardless,
to mutter absently
over their charged beauty and starry
whiteness, that pale
silver light hidden

inside. Not for wishing on,
not for bargaining—just simple
floating, elemental
and river-wide . . . .

Although this being
in your presence summons
its opposite—to be with
and without you, which
is harder to bear? May as well

ask the water, inquire
of the wings or the drifting
post-dumb heart, ask
these things
that have already
given themselves away.