This Will Not Be the End of It

By Cynthia Bargar

Luckily, the night ends 
with a calm over Valparaíso. 
Neruda’s chair a cloud, 
they tell themselves. 
A boat muffles 
the sound of sleep. 
An old woman sighs. 
From her fullness or 
freedom. From tears 
beading the sky. 
He might have fled 
to Mexico before dying.
Children play & 
bend their bodies 
in these streets. 
Until they scatter 
like stars upon the mountains,
their chatter & rattle, 
like so many questions 
from the withered 
flowers around the corner. 

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Cynthia Bargar is Associate Poetry editor at Pangyrus. Her poems have appeared in many journals, most recently Rogue Agent, Book of Matches, Driftwood Press, and in the book, Our Provincetown: Intimate Portraits by Barbara E. Cohen (Provincetown Arts Press, 2021). Her first poetry collection, Sleeping in the Dead Girl’s Room, came out from Lily Poetry Review Books in January, 2022. Cynthia lives with her partner, cartoonist Nick Thorkelson, in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

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