Wish for Another Poem

The Wish
Louise Gluck

Remember that time you made the wish?

     I make a lot of wishes.

The time I lied to you
about the butterfly. I always wondered
what you wished for.

     What do you think I wished?

I don't know. That I'd come back,
that we'd somehow be together in the end.

     I wished for what I always wish for.
     I wished for another poem.

If you saw a falling star, were holding a fuzzy dandelion, or staring down the inferno of a birthday cake, what would you wish for right now?

That this whole mess never happened? That you had never given your heart to this person? That you will make it through this trial as a couple? That you will make it through this trial as an individual?

I hope, the next time I have an opportunity to make a wish, my first instinct is not to wish for anything related to betrayal, but rather to wish for something fulfilling and true to myself, to wish for something I might have wished for before my world came crashing down around me.

I hope to wish for another poem.

***

This poem is from "Meadowlands," which includes a series of conversations between a couple before, during, and after their divorce. Presumably, the indented speaker is Gluck herself. Buy the book here.