Negative Capabilities

We will never know what broke
The course of the full moon train.
At the restaurant, people stared
As the performance of our lives

Crashed out the window into destiny.
It wasn’t awful at first. Only funny.
The cold, watery light ran down
My dress, and I didn’t know what to do.

You were so wrong, so right,
I felt almost betrayed. Those were the years
You watched me through, standing
Like a pale flush across the lake.

I was leaving when you told me
What kind of person I’d become.
Now the train won’t come on time.
The moon had broken over the table,

And I couldn’t pick up all
The aluminum pieces on the floor.
I am a terrible sister,
And an even more painful daughter.

We will change each other.

---

Grace Q. Song is a writer residing in New York City. Her poetry and fiction have been published in The Boiler, The Offing, The Cincinnati Review, The Minnesota Review, THRUSH, and elsewhere. Past works have been selected for inclusion in Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and Best Microfiction. She is the winner of the 11th Annual Gigantic Sequins Poetry Contest, selected by Vi Khi Nao, and she studies English at Columbia University.