Annie Kantar: Lines From A Cento

But haven’t you noticed 

beauty’s fallen out of fashion? 

Thrown in the sun’s descending car, 

it will do as it wishes, 

 

will land like the peacock not ready 

for splendor. O ever-pleasing Solitude, 

companion of the wise and good, 

have I spent too much, or not enough, 

of my life on this? There have been, granted, 

 

other things: duty, devotion— 

vows cast to the earth, 

taking root as seeds and sutures. 

All my love I’ve asked: what’s this? 

All my life, these topographical errors.