Backwards



I wrote this poem for fun one day, imagining how it would be to live a day backwards from dusk to dawn.



Backwards

What if
instead of rising morn
we peel the day backwards
from dusk to dawn
yawning to wakefulness
finish the day before it’s begun

Our stomachs full, without a bite of food
the empty plate before us
dessert before potatoes
tasks done before we ever start
hair combed as though there’d been no tangles
clothing wrinkled after the iron

What if we started the day at dusk
peeled it backwards
then tomorrow might be a fine day


© Carolyn Wilker

Published by Tower Poetry Society Summer 2017, Volume 66, No. 1

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