but sometimes waits for years
to see it pass overhead
maybe it coasts
elegant as a white boat
or rides loose and wild
as gray hair
torn from sleep,
and when it disappears
the same wind
that pushes it from view
encourages the tree to say
goodbye, leaves
flashing like minnows—
Michael Bazzett is the author of four books of poetry, including The Echo Chamber (Milkweed Editions, 2021), and the chapbook The Temple (Bull City, 2020). Recent work has appeared in Granta, Agni, The American Poetry Review, The Sun, The Nation, and The Paris Review, and his verse translation of the Mayan creation epic, The Popol Vuh, (Milkweed, 2018) was named one of 2018’s best books of poetry by the NY Times. The recipient of an NEA Fellowship, he lives in Minneapolis.
