"Are Loyal" by Alice Notley

Are Loyal
by Alice Notley

Okay part of it’s
here. See it,

I want you to see my brother, dead smiling
in a red short-sleeved shirt, 
You look so much better

I got through.
  How does time work for you?

I can see where — when — I felt bad.
Goes past. I’m not in it any more
But this change hasn’t happened in time — a kind of
before and after but no ... continuum.
You look brilliant! I
never let you down — he says — did I?
It wasn’t possible,          Why not?
Sisters and brothers are loyal,

we are the primal particles.
I saw how we connected to make a shape
in the eyes of the beholder who chose it: But we
are not that. What I see is free to change its outline.
My story: the shadow of one. Why did I
shrink into a story? It’s easier to talk
as a person, but why? I guess we decided to, talking.
Coyote throws the stars up into the sky.





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