The story they told us was wide and lost and ever changing
And the words it came with were small
Sprawling and crawling for its end
The end, if something could be said of it
Tried to take shadow and shape but closed and collapsed at its centre
Wound around an end a different coloured string
There might have been an umbrella, shoe, or even jewellery
But who among us would know our way back, could climb over that mess again?
Cut a hole into this page and hold it up to the sky
Tell us of the blue if it is day and the stars that shoot through if it is night
Fluff the clouds if they look flat or pin-prick the moon if it is full of itself
Tell yourself yesterday was not tomorrow and none of it will ever be today
Souvankham Thammavongsa is the author of three poetry books, most recently Light, which won the 2014 Trillium Book Award for Poetry.