Love at the End

Abstract

Love at the Endafter Andrés Montoya Darrel Alejandro Holnes (bio) Tomorrow, forever, as the owl sleepsI’m going to beat the city’s dirtout of my clothes, the COVID deaths that broughtthe strongest to their knees.I’m going to run headlongthrough a social media stormdodging subtweets, likes, and sharesinto a climate change hurricane offake news. I’m going howl like wolvesat the blue-black sky. The moon is notan N95. I’m going to come throughthe wild unabashed zeitgeist ofonline ordering, shipping, and returning,and run the hospital halls screaminglike the sirens on the streetsheaded for that protest behind my house—until I am healed or at least vaccinated,until there is a cure or at least a pause,until feathers flow from my mouth, mi amor,until you take my calloused hands to prayas you take my lips to kiss.We gather the stars like flowers,and make constellations our bouquetsand nibble the meat behind each other’s knees,and lick each other’s feet clean, [End Page 127] until we are born again,or at least remadeinto something invincible. [End Page 128] Darrel Alejandro Holnes Darrel Alejandro Holnes is the author of Migrant Psalms (Northwestern University Press, 2021) and Stepmotherland (University of Notre Dame Press, 2022). He is the recipient of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize from Letras Latinas, the Drinking Gourd Poetry Prize, and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Creative Writing (Poetry). Copyright © 2022 The Trustees of Indiana University