I loved. Tried to anyhow. Friends
and lunchtime and poems and you—
the last in as many ways as I could
think of. Broke the days into arable units
of explosion. Affection as combustion
engine. When inside, kept tea within arms
length where feasible. Lifted heavy things
whenever possible. I am told this is good
to do for several reasons at once
but I forgot them. I try on your steadfastness.
Here is my canoe. I steer always toward
the sun. Even though I will not reach it
and tomorrow it will appear the same
goddamn direction I just came from.

Robert Wood Lynn is a poet from Virginia. His debut collection Mothman Apologia (2022 Yale University Press) was selected by Rae Armantrout for the 2021 Yale Series of Younger Poets. His chapbook How to Maintain Eye Contact is forthcoming from Button Poetry in 2023. His work has been featured or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, Poetry Daily, The Southern Review, The Yale Review and other publications.

Michelle Saffran, a photographer, educator and maker of books, lives in rural Vermont. She earned a MFA from Lesley University of Art and Design (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and holds a BFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design (Minneapolis, Minnesota), and a BA from Oakland University (Rochester, Michigan). A consistent thread running through all of Saffran's work is a visual narrative that hints at the sociological and psychological insight into the ways autobiographical history, memory and experience affect identity. Saffran is the recipient of the Artist Creation Grant and Artist Development Grants from the Vermont Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts and a Vermont Community Foundation Grant. Her work is included in private and public collections across the United States, Mexico and Australia. Born in Detroit, Michigan Saffran's identity is strongly tied to her early developmental years as a blue collared daughter of the auto industry.