---
title: And
genre: verse

epigraph:
    content: |
        "What is your favorite word?"

        "And.  It is so hopeful."
    attrib: Margaret Atwood
    link: 'http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/oct/28/margaret-atwood-q-a'

project:
    title: Elegies for alternate selves
    css: elegies
    order: 3
    next:
    - title: Words and meaning
      link: words-meaning
    prev:
    - title: How to read this
      link: howtoread
...

| And you were there in the start of it all
| and you folded your [hands like little doves][]
| that would fly away like an afterthought
| and you turned to me the window light on your face
| and you asked me something that I did not recognize
| like a great throng of people who are not you
| and I asked are we in a [church][]
| and you answered with the look on your face
| of someone [grieving something gone][] for years
| but that they had been reminded of
| by a catch in the light or in someone's voice
| and I think maybe it could have been mine
| and I looked away thickly my head was in jelly
| and I didn't get an answer from you but I got one

| I looked at the man in front of us with glasses
| he was speaking and holding a book
| and I didn't understand him he was far away
| and I could tell I was missing something important
| and you nodded to yourself at something he said

[church]: boar.html
[grieving something gone]: roughgloves.html
[hands like little doves]: cold-wind.html