Michael Meyerhofer
Weekend Getaway
The day before my fortieth birthday,
which doubled as the twentieth anniversary
of my mother’s death, I spent hours
between meetings in search
of affordable hotels near the ocean,
driftwood shacks where I might share
chilled wine and apologies with a woman
who’d already given me nearly
three thousand mornings and enough
time zones to know she was better off
moving out well before I got home
to find the trunks packed, the coffee cups
sensibly divided, even the housecat
quietly shipped on her way—not for fear
of violence but what it might do
to her resolve once she saw me grasping
so goddamn late that numbers matter
only for the breath that shapes them.
About the writer:
Michael Meyerhofer‘s fifth poetry book, Ragged Eden, was published by Glass Lyre Press. He has been the recipient of the James Wright Poetry Award, the Liam Rector First Book Award, the Brick Road Poetry Book Prize, and other honors. His work has appeared in many journals including Hayden’s Ferry, Rattle, Brevity, Tupelo Quarterly, and Ploughshares. He is also the author of a fantasy series and the Poetry Editor of Atticus Review.
Image: The Abandoned by Marianne von Werefkin (1860-1838). No medium specified. No size specified. No completion date specified. Public domain.
