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  • Longing Madrigal, and: Adolescence Madrigal
  • Lisa Russ Spaar (bio)

Longing Madrigal

Yearning’s as far as I can gowith you gone.Its fruit is prior to body.A proof of soul.

Your absent body’s testimonydivinity’s got form.All afternoon, a naiad rain.I had a crave for oysters

& all the world’s fontsthat hold your name, signsto be swallowed whole & rawupon discovery, like a password

or a battle plan. Now this sickle moon.Which only seems a part. [End Page 44]

Adolescence Madrigal

Lindens in a novel were whatI wanted to be under, angsty & feybeside the quay I’d learnedto pronounce as key,

as I knew to say Yeats,not Yeets. The clatter of wheelsI craved was just my heart, corsetedribs that only special hands might heal.

Blame in the virulent jaundiceof that autumn. Brutal shiverto school on suburban sidewalks,lugging hunger privileged

as a heavy book. I dreamed you even then,above my breasts, undreamed-of plot without an end. [End Page 45]

Lisa Russ Spaar

Lisa Russ Spaar is the author of many collections of poetry, most recently Orexia: Poems (Persea Books, 2017).

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