print previewback EDWARD MAYES
On Lines from Czesław Miłosz’s “Meaning”
Even if that is so, there will remain
—Haven’t you always thought your life
Was a calculated risk, your bushels
Of wheat, your baskets of bread,
The dead not sprouting up anytime
Soon, and what would you say if you saw one?—Or the day you abandoned your search
For the missing word, was, or was it
Were, when you thought nothing quite
Adds up to thrush, and could you ever
Really say non ne dubito, ne sono certo?—Or that other day you asked about how
To learn to doubt, since it can’t be taught,
No high-wire act of faith, the b, never silent
In itself, never wavers in doubt, so simple, you
Said, this world, and so complicated, you said, the next.
Non ne dubito, ne sono certo: Italian for “I don’t doubt it, I’m sure of it“