TIM SUERMONDT

For Constance of the City

One of these nights I’ll go looking for you,
even while knowing you can’t be found

in this life anymore. I’ll scour every street
large and small, following the lights

and the brilliant pulsing of the moonflowers.
And when I finally let the impossible go

I’ll return to where I live, waiting for the morning
and the arrival of workers of every stripe,

watching especially for the yellow school buses
that will stop at the corner whitened by a thin

layer of snow, the shadows of the construction
cranes bowing, as if thankful for another day.

Tim Suermondt’s sixth full-length book of poems A Doughnut And The Great Beauty Of The World came out in 2023 from MadHat Press. He has published in Poetry, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Stand Magazine, Smartish Pace, The Fortnightly Review, Poet Lore and Plume, among many others. He lives in Cambridge (MA) with his wife, the poet Pui Ying Wong.