Palimpsest
- Palimpsest
Flower-bordered riverwhere I fillet the hyacinths,
a russian doll of placesposing as one place.
Halogen meat a horse show in Florida
while another juliennesolives for appetizers.
A doll slipped in anothertill all dolls are dull:
versions of mewith whistles for lips
reciting asterisksin the periodic table.
Collage of the unconscious:white flowers, lost teeth,
scarecrow withan aureole of straw,
basilica for everyone’sbest dresses.
I visit the publicmuseum of clouds, [End Page 175]
lithographs of skyposing as space.
Layers make monstersas shows the snapdragon.
Memory, you crooked thingI do to the page. [End Page 176]
Maya Catherine Popa’s work appears or is forthcoming in Kenyon Review, Field, Poetry London, Oxford Poetry, the Rumpus, the Huffington Post, and elsewhere. She was a Clarendon Scholar at Oxford University from 2011–13 and is currently completing an mfa at nyu. She is the editorial fellow at Poets & Writers magazine and the literary editor of All Hollow magazine.
