Mystery Ending With a Girl in a Field

by Beth Bachmann

You’ve heard it before—but listen:

                I brought you into this world,
                I can take you out of it.

I know what you’re thinking.
It wouldn’t be the first time.

Maybe he did. Maybe he didn’t.
Nothing’s resolved. But what does it matter?

I could pull these petals off all day,
mouthing he loves me, he loves me not.

 

Beth Bachmann’s poems have recently appeared in American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, and Best New Poets 2005. She teaches creative writing at Vanderbilt University and is the book review editor for The Southern Review. (8/2006)