At the Drowned Valley

by Niina Pollari

I need you
But I can’t talk right now
I know you understand
Let’s go down to the river
Like a pair of convalescents
Let’s walk slowly toward the gray river
And when we get there
Let’s open our eyes
Which have been closed for days
And we can regard the gray water
As it pulls listlessly down toward the bay
Let the air throw birds around like manuscript pages
Let my pain radiate from me like skin cells sloughing
Like an automatic process
And as I clasp my hand into yours
Let’s close the emptiness between our palms
And force out the distance
Till there isn’t one

Niina Pollari is a poet and Finnish translator currently located in Western North Carolina. She is the author of the poetry collections Path of Totality (Soft Skull 2022) and Dead Horse (Birds, LLC 2015), as well as the co-
author of the split chapbook Total Mood Killer (Tiger Bee Press 2017).
“At the Drowned Valley” is included in Path of Totality,
and is reprinted with permission by the author.
www.niinapollari.com