I struggle to gather
my absurdities 
into a symbol. 
The landscape streams by
                              streams by. 

MH picks me up 
from the train station. 
I crack a beer, 
so does she. I struggle. 

The symbol is a moth 
banging it brains out
against the window. 

Everyday, I say. 
Everyday, she says. 

Everyday we thwart 
each other from leaving 
this world. 

Au revoir! we cheers 
and we laugh and laugh—
Each night fizzling out
like the last. 

In the morning,
the moth is still there, 
                    quieter now, 
    broken, 
in a way.

S. YARBERRY is a trans poet and writer. Their poetry has appeared in Tin House, Indiana Review, The Offing, Berkeley Poetry Review, jubilat, The Boiler, Sixth Finch, Notre Dame Review, Nat Brut, and miscellaneous zines, among others. Their other writings can be found, or forthcoming, in Bomb Magazine, The Adroit Journal, and Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly. S. has a MFA in Poetry from Washington University in St. Louis where they now hold the Junior Teaching Fellowship in Poetry. They currently serve as the Poetry Editor of The Spectacle.

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