Leaving, by Nancy Byrne Iannucci

Driftwood, by Adam Oehlers (UK) 2017. Click image to visit artist site.

Leaving
​
Leaving this Earth, leaving everything,
leaving this relationship, leaving 
friendships, leaving this situation-
 
leaving my soul: snowdrops, trees 
with gnome doors, grape hyacinth leaves
stretching above the grass, all the annuals,  
 
and the perennials already planted.
I will not see your warm, dirty birth, 
forgive me, this does not mean I don’t love you.
 
You see, with all that is going on here, 
leaving is better than staying. I have no
fancy fórcola attached to my boat, this 
 
is not an oar, but a stick – I hear 
no opera in the thick, just the
breeze detaching leaves, fool’s
 
gold floating on water. I have not 
washed my hair in weeks, it hangs 
in streaks, battered branches.
 
I’m Ophelia in
Dickinson white. This dress  
does not fit, like most things.
 
Goodbye.

Nancy Byrne Iannucci

Nancy Byrne Iannucci is the author of Temptation of Wood (Nixes Mate Review 2018). Her poems have appeared in a number of publications including Gargoyle, Ghost City Press, Clementine Unbound, Three Drops from a Cauldron, 8 Poems, Glass: A Journal of Poetry (Poets Resist), Hobo Camp Review, and Typehouse Literary Magazine. Nancy is a Long Island, NY native who now resides in Troy, NY where she teaches history at the Emma Willard School.