[BURLINGTON]

When I saw you again, the trees swallowed their tongues.

*

All around us, shards of glass. The remnants of a party. You kept calling me Christine
and I had no idea why.

*

Somewhere a sad film is playing to an empty room. On the screen, a woman can’t stop dialing a black rotary phone.

*

In French, the word dénouement means, quite literally, the act of untying.

*

So you asked for directions to the liquor store. I just stood there. Like the statue of Columbus. His stuttering bride.

Kristina Marie Darling is the author of over twenty books, which include Vow and Failure Lyric, forthcoming from BlazeVOX Books. Her awards include fellowships from Yaddo, the Ucross Foundation, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, as well as grants from the Kittredge Fund, the Elizabeth George Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation Archive Center. She was recently selected as a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome.