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Testament: Two Poems

Testament


What’s the

difference?

You might

wear it out

touching,

touching, not

buying. Like a

snail on a stick,

you, slow over

it with your tiny

mouth, never

biting. Spiral:

the eye,

the head, the repetition

of thought—omen

omenless. Things—

soft, hard, book,

milk, rogue wheat

in the drive, pidgeons

and all—just

this world and ourselves

in it.

The holy is

otherwise,

nowhere. Where

the not-fog

waits in the

no-valley.


Testament


Fear of loss

is more

common than loss,

a clear stone that tumbles

against its brothers,

a filament

spun from unpronounceable

metals which enters

a hole, fissure,

a tiny camera that swims,

radioactivity

that sprinkles a map

of mystery.

Now I see

so many little

doors I know

we can’t

contain it,

blood’s push

which purifies and

cannot. Dear

fear, hot piece,

are you machine,

animal,

ghost?


ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR

is an associate professor of English at New Mexico State University, where she directs the creative writing program. Educated at Yale University, she received her MFA from University of California at Irvine and her Ph.D. from University of Utah. Her book, Cathedral of the North, was winner of the AWP Award in Poetry and was released by University of Pittsburgh Press. Rare High Meadow of Which I Might Dream was published by University of Chicago Press in 2008 and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award.

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