There is a place where Contrarieties are equally True
This place is called Beulah, It is a pleasant lovely Shadow
Where no dispute can come, Because of those who Sleep.
—William Blake
The lake was blue pastoral,
and it was clear and my face
was inside it next to yours.
I said: look at this blue
Pastoral landscape!
You looked into my eyes and smiled.
Once, I considered
that pastoral could be
past and oral, not sexually,
of course, but traditionally,
A Past Oral Tradition,
though— it is— Romantic—
I’ll follow you, I had wished to say,
as you submerged into
the simple dazzle of lakewater.
You disappeared. You shepherded
me so far away from my self
that I do not feel at home
there any longer. I watch
who I am becoming
swim out across the water,
and stand next to where you unfold.
Blue heron, you said.
Blue errand, I heard.
It was like I had never heard you before.
S. Yarberry is a trans poet and writer. Their poetry has appeared in, or is forthcoming in, Indiana Review, The Offing, Berkeley Poetry Review, Nat Brut, Cape Cod Poetry Review, miscellaneous zines, among others. Their other writings can be found in Bomb Magazine and Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly. S. is a MFA candidate in Poetry at Washington University in St. Louis and The Poetry Editor of The Spectacle.