I slide through years
since we parted
not comprehending
the span of time I’m slicing
with tomatoes for the caprese salad
I will place before you, and it will be
summer and savory, the zing of basil
snipped from the terracotta pot on the patio
just outside the door where some things are forever—
it’s true
that happens between people
living and dead, the psyche slices back
the story because
time
in cradled cocoons
in silk-spun secrets and promises
goes on like that
expanding and
never out of reach.

Catherine Arra is a native of the Hudson Valley in upstate New York. She is the author of Writing in the Ether (Dos Madres Press, 2018) and three chapbooks, Tales of Intrigue & Plumage (FutureCycle Press, 2017), Loving from the Backbone (Flutter Press, 2015), and Slamming & Splitting (Red Ochre Press, 2014). Find her at www.catherinearra.com