The Speed of Light

Cindy Hunter Morgan

Cindy Hunter Morgan

The Speed of Light was selected as part of MSU Library Short Edition's call for submissions on the theme of "Home," in coordination with the MSU Broad Art Museum's exhibition "Where We Dwell." Cindy Hunter Morgan's new book, Far Company, will be published by Wayne State University Press in spring of 2022. Her first book, Harborless (Wayne State University Press), is a 2018 Michigan Notable Book and the winner of the 2017 Moveen Prize in Poetry. She heads up communications for Michigan State University Libraries, where she also is part of the MSUL Short Edition team.

After W.S. Merwin

So gradual in those summers was the going
it seemed the apples would always be
almost ripening, the pasture always
thick with clover. Days were green
with snap peas and wild tendrils.
Clematis curled through its trellis,
snapdragons bulged like the throats of frogs
until every blossom sang. I assumed
the breezy song of the veery would spiral
through every afternoon, would loop round
the orchard forever and float through
all of our days. My grandmother baked cookies,
lining the blue counter with round suns
we ate without counting. I thought
she would always only need a twenty-
minute nap, would always move like a bee
from room to room. I did not hear the soil
growing quiet. It was only at night before
sleep when I listened to my grandparents
listening to the weather radio
that I began to hear something increasing
like the height of waves, the chance of frost.

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