Verdad Magazine Volume 29
Fall 2020, Volume 29
Poetry by Walter Bargen
More Better
Maybe not careful enough
And that’s a problem.
It’s not care
But something more.
Care doesn’t reach deep enough
And, of course, there’s
The More better, the gift
Of every child, at least,
In the mind of the parent,
Clinging to every
Fractured moment of cuteness
In order to overcome
The sleepless nights the pacing back and forth
Beside the crib a room without doors
And windows,
Even though there are both. Counting the coughs
Feeling her forehead,
Wanting to do more,
Begging for more when there is nothing
More to do but survive
Another hour to wait out
The witching hour listen to the howl of the wolf’s hour
Split Zeno’s hour finer and finer
Toward an end that never wants
To be reached and I don’t want to.
Better to end it here
Than end alone falling
Over some unforeseen edge.
Then the wail to be fed
And the more careful cry
And the more careful caring.
BIO: Walter Bargen has published 23 books of poetry. Recent books include: Days Like This Are Necessary: New & Selected Poems (2009), Trouble Behind Glass Doors (2013), Too Quick for the Living (2017), My Other Mother’s Red Mercedes (2018), and Until Next Time (2019). His awards include: a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the William Rockhill Nelson Award. He was appointed the first poet laureate of Missouri (2008-2009). www.walterbargen.com