In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Allergy Song
  • Matthew Nienow (bio)

Come and I will clear your throat of lilacs,tease loose the knots of a blossom's work,I'll make a tonic stronger than the pollenthat put you here, propped up at the edgeof the bed, a nectarine shirt tossed overthe lampshade making the whole room gloworange, as I imagine it might inside a flower,as if we were bees, you with your bookof hunger, me with my song of hum and pause—

For you I'll sleep with windows closedeven though the sweet air swims against the glass,and the cedar whispers the story of before usand the night bird sings your name, sweet, sweet, sweet

wife, before I knew you I slept outsidefor months at a time and gathered a store of things:

blue fishing twine, a glass jar the color of sky,a rusted knife handle missing its blade, caribou antler,bone carvings, a small stone cairn—and deep in the pages of a tattered journal,two sprigs of River Beauty,the blossom's purple faded slightly, but still fragrant,a gift, because I love you, I will not share. [End Page 78]

Matthew Nienow

Matthew Nienow is the author of two chapbooks, The Smallest Working Pieces and Two Sides of the Same Thing. New work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Working Pieces, Nimrod, Cincinnati Review, Columbia, New Orleans Review, Best New Poets 2007, and others.

...

pdf

Share