Pompeii
Julia Wendell

Pompeii

                                             Notice
the careful architecture on his side
of the bed: pillows stacked horizontally,
the ones in front in taller columns,
a hand towel shading the reading lamp,
casting dampered light
on his absence.

On her side, jumbled linens,
errant silver dog hairs,
a throw piled in the center
of their catawampus raft,
as if to separate his loot from hers.

A keeling vessel they’ve shimmed
with the thinnest of chapbooks,
tossed sweaters and tights
smelling of yesterday,
half-spent ampoules of water,
bite guard, body butter,
an alarm clock flashing noon:
everything left
too long on display,
like Christmas lights in March,

as if they’d already disappeared—
a head-on crash, a kick
from a startled horse, a simultaneous
fatal slip in the shower.

Julia Wendell

is the author of six poetry collections, including, most recently, The Art of Falling (FutureCycle Press, 2022). Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, Nimrod, and other journals. She is the founding editor of Galileo Press and lives in Aiken, South Carolina.