J. Allyn Ross

J. Allyn Rosser (1957 - ) was born in Pennsylvania. She attended Middlebury College in Vermont and earned a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. Rosser is a professor of English at Ohio University. She has received numerous fellowships, grants and awards for her poetry.   

As If

How do you explain why elephants

appear to move their unwieldy hulks

with greater dignity than most humans do

in their finest moments,

as if they had evolved beyond wanting

anything but what they have?

Why does the field begin to ripple

before the wind arrives in whispers,

as if there were a communication,

as if the landscape were poorly dubbed,

and we weren’t expected to notice?

What butterfly does not dart away from us

as if it could sense our latent cruelties,

and yet return to check and double-check?

Has the night not gotten recently darker,

as if to insinuate that we have squandered

the light that was there?

Have we made too much of our own?

And did you notice afterward the dawn

opening up with a tentative eagerness

as if there were something crucial to illumine,

as if we would wake up early just to see it?

I imagine you reading this now

with an expression of quiet trouble

itself troubled by currents of hope,

as if you imagined me here with you,

as if I might be able to see your expression,

and at least answer it with mine.

— J.Allyn Rosser