‘Courtship’
— Nix Thérèse
‘Courtship’ as a title feels slightly ironic because even though it draws us into the idea of a relationship immediately, much of the poem is rumination from the speaker. I’m hesitant to call them confessions because these statements teeter somewhere between honesty and bravado; the difficulty in untangling the two only makes the voice that much more compelling. Consider this line: “I want to enter the Pure Gold / Restoration Clinic by instinct / but I have no treasure.” Each step that we take down the page drives us deeper into the vulnerability of the voice, but once they tell us no treasure is to be found, we flip to another topic. The constant building of images and movement illuminates just how much the speaker gets to choose what they want to reveal. Being left with only slivers of their perspective ties us back to the fan in the beginning because the poem leaves us waiting for the cues just as any lover would, and implies that we should pay close attention in order not to miss any signals. Reflection and delegation towards the lover/us are both delicately managed without ever losing the strength of voice. When they say not to “shake the fire tree / if you shiver at sparks,” they clearly are asking for their time not to be wasted. We’re left to wonder if and/or how that could be achieved when these moments sometimes feel like water held in a cupped hand: our instinct is to sift/process when we should catch.