wildscape. literary journal

Going Back
by tc Wiggins

The past takes no prisoners.
Buries each sentence with when.
Reminds us this year’s harvest of plums
were not as sweet as last’s. Then 
leaves us defeated from delight. 
When Orpheus returned, he sang
for no one. Just sat on a rock, and spoke 
in plain words how he only thought 
to turn because he had heard a sound, 
or not enough of one. Then on about her hair. 
We come back like geese to the banks 
of memory. Like widows we return 
to the village of abandoned homes to find
nothing besides dust, unfinished cans of food. 
The portraits of happy people everywhere.

about the author // tc Wiggins

tc Wiggins (he/him) is an African American poet residing in Cincinnati, Ohio who has been writing since the August of 2022. Their favorite writers and inspirations are Jack Gilbert, Linda Gregg, Mary Oliver, Maggie Smith, Victoria Chang and Wendy Cope. tc suffers from chronic (if not terminal) boredom. You should send them poems to read, preferably your own. Their Instagram handle is @scaringthemuse.