Ending

 

 

Guettarda uruguensis/jazmín del Uruguay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this sonnet, each line ends in "ve" which in Spanish means "go."

"Ending" was first published in 2017 in Alabama Literary Review (volume 26, number 1) and appears in my collection Pointing Home (Kelsay Books, 2019).

 

 

Ending

                                               

 

Nothing to reproach or to forgive.

Nothing to unwind or to unweave.

No arguments to prove or to disprove.

No wrongs to right. No rights to claim or waive.

In retrospect, it’s all so relative—

seasons, space-time, truth and make-believe.

I’ve left the northern hemisphere, but you’ve

a motto: Plus ça change . . . I hear you; save

that here the jasmine is in bloom. Above,

Crux reappears to complement a mauve

and apricot tableau. The men arrive,

back from the long November cattle drive,

while in a nearby eucalyptus grove

a golden-eared paloma coos his love.