the remarkable thing

by Rex Wilder

I am still waiting for the lion, said to pad about
the dense woods
above our long house
in the canyon.

Said to, sad to employ that phrase.
An admission.
An abdication of power.
An ice cream cone
to almost any day in California.

“the remarkable thing” is from Rex’s fourth (and forthcoming) volume, Summer Break, which refers to both a mental breakdown and a life-affirming pivot in his life. He has poems in TLS, Poetry, Poetry Ireland, New Republic, National Review, The New Criterion, and many of the best reviews and anthologies, including Knopf’s recent pandemic collection, Together in a Sudden Strangeness.