Rachel J. Bennett is the author of On Rand McNally's World, from dancing girl press. Her poems are included in the Brooklyn Poets Anthology, from Brooklyn Arts Press, and Pith: Year One, from Kin Press. Recent poems appear in Big Lucks, Bodega, LEVELER, Rattle, Salt Hill Journal, Sixth Finch, and Vinyl Poetry. She grew up on the Illinois-Iowa border and lives in New York City. Find more at www.racheljbennett.com .
For the Programmer
I didn’t become myself
until you
it’s true the lens
was cracked
also how the war was
never mentioned
we wanted everyone
to love us because
we didn’t
love anyone
as much as we said
I wrote an opera
called the horizon
variations to win
you and if I foundered
it’s because
you weren’t
the sea
the force field wasn’t
your careful
breaks nor countless
fruits (the ones
I now call
apples) but
the thing I’ll
never say again
which I wrote down
as your name
on the screen with
all the high scores