WHAT I DID

                              by Michael Bazzett 

​
First, I became a lake so that I could never drown.

Then, I became the wind so as not to lose my breath.

Finally, I became fire so my mind would be a tongue
​
and make luminous the murder of what I most desire.

photo by Leslie Bazzett

​Michael Bazzett’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, Guernica, Virginia Quarterly Review, Copper Nickel, and The Rumpus. His debut collection, You Must Remember This, received the 2014 Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry from Milkweed Editions. He has two poetry collections forthcoming: The Interrogation, (Milkweed) and Our Lands Are Not So Different, (Horsethief Books), as well as a verse translation of The Popul Vuh, the Mayan creation epic (Milkweed). He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and two children. You can visit him at michaelbazzett.com.