A. M. Juster’s work has appeared in Poetry, The Hudson Review, The Paris Review, and the new anthology Christian Poetry in America Since 1940. His eleventh book, a translation of Petrarch’s Canzoniere, is due from W. W. Norton in early 2024.
At every hour I seem to hearthe messenger she sends to me,and so I change incessantly,diminished by each passing yearas my reflection turns unclear;I spurn the way I used to be.I long to know when I’ll be freealthough that moment should be near.How joyous it will be to flyfrom earthbound jails and scatter frailand mortal…
After six years away, today the sunlight weaves through plum and amber leaves to fend off Boston’s gray. Most things avoid most change; rush hour traffic snarls and honks along the Charles, but pulling in is strange. It’s not repainting by the neighbors, or new faces, or all the gaping spaces where trees had blocked…