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In the Meantime by Lisa Olstein

By T.

1 May 2011

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In the Meantime
Lisa Olstein

What seemed a mystery was
in fact a choice. Insert bird for sorrow.

What seemed a memory was in fact
a dividing line. Insert bird for wind.

Insert wind for departure when everyone is
standing still. Insert three mountains

burning and in three valleys a signal seer
seeing a distant light and a signal bearer

sprinting to a far-off bell. What seemed
a promise was in fact a sigh.

What seemed a hot wind, a not quite enough,
a forgive me, it has flown away, is in fact.

In the meantime we paint the floors
red. We stroke the sound of certain names

into a fine floss that drifts across our teeth.
We stay in the room we share and listen

all night to what drifts through the window—
dog growl, owl call, a fleet of mosquitoes

setting sail, and down the road,
the swish of tomorrow’s donkey-threshed grain.

MARGINALIA

Had a bad dream that I can’t remember now. I only know that I was crying, and, awake, couldn’t stop.

ABOUT LISA OLSTEIN

Lisa Olstein is the author of six poetry collections published by Copper Canyon Press: Radio Crackling, Radio Gone (2006), winner of the Hayden Carruth Award; Lost Alphabet (2009), a Library Journal best book of the year; Little Stranger (2013), a Lannan Literary Selection; Late Empire (2017); Dream Apartment (2023), a finalist of the Writers League of Texas Book Award; and Distinguished Office of Echoes (2025), a collection of collage- and erasure-based poems engaging… (more)