Syllable

"Syllable" was first published in Cutbank Literary Journal, selected by Oliver de La Paz as the winner of the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry. Say hi to me at authorially.vzy.io

In The Museum of Water

Unseated, the pond is the place to rest,

a place to hole up, a way in, a place

to hold out, a way out, a place

to remember that other life form,

a place to float outside of the migratory

self. It is the gift of water.

It is the gift of deep, though

not ocean, nor sea monster.

I set my cubed self against the cat

tail. I walk a horseshoe, rest

an oval as deep as ferns¸

as bottomless as high grass.

Here is the envelope of water.

Here is the signet, the fold and the stamp.

This pond fits the letter. This pond

fastens the seal. Here I send self

to self, keeping the lines light in my hand.

I sight the serpent, seeing the stories shed, watching

the end bite the beginning, hereafter to heretofore,

furthermore to evermore, amazement to amazement,

tooth to nipple, claw to lip, and later, the again, to the again.