7.2 Fall/Winter 2009

Catherine Wing The Darker Sooner

Then came the darker sooner,
came the later lower.
We were no longer a sweeter-here
happily-ever-after. We were after ever.
We were farther and further.
More was the word we used for harder.
Lost was our standard-bearer.
Our gods were fallen faster,
and fallen larger.
The day was duller, duller
was disaster. Our charge was error.
Instead of leader we had louder,
instead of lover, never. And over this river
broke the winter’s black weather.
 


 
Catherine Wing grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, on a street bounded by two florists, a cemetery, and a Carnegie Library. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Chicago Review, Field, and Poetry. Her collection, Enter Visible, was published by Sarabande Books.