Go Gentle

by Cat Dixon

After Dylan Thomas

Go gentle into that starless night—
sip the vodka, swallow every blue Unisom,

sink into the Missouri. Let it carry you—
carry you to the envied deep where

sleep blankets the probing questions,
where worry settles like gray pebbles

on the riverbed. Go capture the silence
of floating face down, where the cold

warms your limbs, where lures
lose their appealing bait, where

your unwelcomed tears are outnumbered.
Let go of your God, your home, your mate,

your possessions, that job, those silly
words you wrote. Let go of the people

who never knew you, and now never will.
Spread out your arms. Release your obsessions.

Succumb to the lightning that stings your throat
and chest, and touch the tongues of flame

beckoning like the pearly gates. Open
your mouth to take in the night and rest.

---

Cat Dixon is the author of What Happens in Nebraska (Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2022) and Dispatches from the Unfillable Sinkhole (Alien Buddha Press, 2023) along with two other full-length collections and three chapbooks. She has recently published poems in Gyroscope Review, Plainsongs Poetry Journal, and Villain Era Lit. She is a poetry editor with The Good Life Review. She works full-time at a funeral home and teaches creative writing part-time at the University of Nebraska, Omaha.