Skip to main content
By Priscilla Becker

when it was understood
it could not happen


fast or all
at once, the world


became my enclosed
space, my trial


zone—small
scrimps like the backyard


metal rake scraping
concrete rather than


one vertical
slit, or a christening


by walking
farther and farther


out—the water
trustworthy, the


edge, intimacy


the skill to
connect into one dull


flow, able to go
soundlessly,


scrupulously with no
help, and paramount, no


signal:
developing death


stamina, perfecting no
expression until


I do not need
a note


Source: Poetry (January 2020)

  • Living

Poet Bio

Priscilla Becker
Priscilla Becker’s full-length books of poetry are Stories That Listen (Four Way Books, 2010) and Internal West (University of Nebraska Press, 2001). See More By This Poet

More Poems about Living

Browse poems about Living Get a random poem