Poetry Rx: Your Body Will Haunt Mine

In our column Poetry Rx, readers write in with a specific emotion, and our resident poets—Sarah Kay, Kaveh Akbar, and Claire Schwartz—take turns prescribing the perfect poems to match. This week, Claire Schwartz is on the line.

Illustration © Ellis Rosen

Dear Poets,

My girlfriend broke up with me five months ago. She once said to me, “I’ll love you forever.” Even though I knew forever wasn’t likely, her absence still leaves me lonely. I’m looking for a poem that will wrap me in its arms.

Thanks,

Bed is Too Big for Just Me 

Dear Bed Too Big,

Mourning has an object. Memory transforms the past—what happened—into a place you can return to. To have been in a relationship with someone is not only to have shared a past; often, it is also to have imagined a joint future. When your girlfriend said, “I’ll love