Yonder …

ON OUR CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAYS

In each poem slash poem slash person

is that of the beyond — they gesture

where they aspire and cannot

go. Their makers break on these

rocks and know it. The girl

who reads a poem at

school, from that moment

a poet — she knows but

doesn't, can't name it,

knows. That earplugged

boy dancing down

the sidewalk, he

knows, does he

ever, the beyond

in his song, doesn't

know, knows. Neither

knows the makers

broken, knowing

the beyond, not

knowing. You? Do

You really believe I
could see you and

not know in

you, nameless, out

of reach, what

none of us

knows, what all

of us know? Of

course you

don't.

— John Timpane