ON BEAUTY, BETRODDEN 

(Beauty existed. It existed once. In his beauty. In bitter beauty.)
(I replace a cobblestone with concrete. Restored to—,)

(One brick at a time. The path overgrown with a narrowness,)
(For the hiker. Dissected again without ether or a wayward opiate. As I walk & measure,)

(Measure myself & walk, against progress—. Against literature)
(Read & reread, against the ticking of a grandfather clock, against a concrete wall.)

(Without primal drive, you cross into life. I am unfounded.)
(My stillness is evolving—.)

(We watched our moon being pulled apart.)
(As it parted, extinguished.)

Stella Hayes is a poet and wine specialist. She grew up in an agricultural town outside of Kiev, and in Chicago. Hayes earned a creative writing degree at University of Southern California. She recently finished her first poetry manuscript, One Strange Country. She lives in Larchmont, N.Y.