POUR, TEAR, CARVE

Always Better Remembered

By Dan Brady

—after William Christenberry’s Southern Monument XI

I’ve placed your gift
inside a safe covered
with thorns. I’ve placed
the safe high on a shelf
which can only be reached
by use of my tallest ladder.
I’ve destroyed the ladder
I used to place it there
and scattered its splinters
through the desert sand.
This is how much I love you.

Dan Brady is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Songs in E——, winner of the Barclay Prize for Poetry. Previously, Dan served as the editor of American Poets, the journal of the Academy of American Poets, and worked in the Literature Division at the National Endowment for the Arts, where he received the Distinguished Service Award. He is the poetry editor of Barrelhouse and lives in Arlington with his wife and kids.