Hurry by Marie Howe

MARGINALIA • SKIP TO THE POEM

1.
These days I am learning how to love myself again. Some days I forget how. And it’s fine mostly, because what do I do with it really. That sounds so terrible when I say it like that, but when you’ve been where I’ve been, in the deep pit with your mouth full of dirt, swimming in despair, you’ll understand that love sometimes can almost be an afterthought. After the fact. After the fracture. 

2.
Feel like I’m hurrying towards something I dread and I can’t help but rush towards it, as if pulled by an unknown force. I don’t even try to fight back. Hurry, a voice inside me says, almost sings it even, hurry hurry hurry. And then I remember: I have to love myself again. So I suppose I drag my feet a little bit. Suppose I try to wait. 

Hurry
Marie Howe

We stop at the dry cleaners and the grocery store  
and the gas station and the green market and  
Hurry up honey, I say, hurry,  
as she runs along two or three steps behind me  
her blue jacket unzipped and her socks rolled down.  

Where do I want her to hurry to? To her grave?  
To mine? Where one day she might stand all grown?  
Today, when all the errands are finally done, I say to her,  
Honey I’m sorry I keep saying Hurry—  
you walk ahead of me. You be the mother.  

And, Hurry up, she says, over her shoulder, looking  
back at me, laughing. Hurry up now darling, she says,  
hurry, hurry, taking the house keys from my hands.

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This poem appeared in The Kingdom of Ordinary Time: Poems by Marie Howe, published by W.W. Norton & Company, 2009. Shared here with profound gratitude.

Read more works by Marie Howe • Find books by this poet • Or view my library 

Explore poems in pursuit of: growing up • family • living • Or browse the index

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