How Will I Know You

The morning before
the melt

a wren lands
on the porch

post closest
to the window

I look at You
through, the one

just under
the iron bell

oxidizing
its resentment

of winter
In two days

spring will be
here like a party

guest too
prompt to be

wanted but
we do want

her, we
cannot help

but want her
in her polkadots

and fever It is
the day before

all this goes
away I say

to myself
and the wren

says What do you
know It is all

already gone
Then

he goes

How Will I Know You

The frog song
trembles

up to the worm
blood moon Night

comes first
Then, the birds

*

Rebecca Gayle Howell is the author of Erase Genesis (Project Poëtica/Bridwell Press, 2026); American Purgatory (Black Springs Press Group, 2017); and Render / An Apocalypse (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2013), selected by Nick Flynn for the Cleveland State University Poetry Center First Book Prize. She is also the librettist of A Winter Breviary (Oxford University Press, 2022) for the composer Reena Esmail.