Notes on Inheritance Poem by Chelsea Dingman

"This is the only kingdom.
The kingdom of touching:
the touches of the disappearing, things."
—Aracelis Girmay


When I see wax, I think of submission.

I think of afterlife. I think of the sky
& what it leaves behind. I used to think

myself a doe, then a hurricane. The muscle
inside the tongue. The prayer-sore. Again

& again, something foreign. Fugitive. So briefly

I was a girl. A young woman. A mule, mother, arm-
rest—the sky resting on a bridge overlooking

the river. That cold, cold water. I waded in,
three seconds to numb. & nothing. I can't give in

to love. What will become of us

when it's the child that is imagined?
Our gods: the fields under a haze

of mosquitoes. And lo, the stars' white
fire. And lo, the splintered spines of spruce

trees. And lo, the disappearing hours.

I stretch my neck into the next life.
I breathe in the cherry blossoms & bomb-

scent of aftermath. I don't care why
I didn't want this. I lean into myself.

I take what is offered until I forget

I am what is offered. With the orchard
& the apple I didn't name. There is

an hour that bears my grave already.
It's late. I can't help but wish I wasn't

lonely. That I wasn't made to disappear.