Eleven More American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Poetics Across North America

Dear Child of God

392 | Eleven More American Women Poets in the 21st Century Mack trapped a spider Kept in a pepper jar He named her Iris Caught roaches to feed her He loved Iris When Iris died He wrote her a letter from Rising, Falling, Hovering Re: Happiness, in pursuit thereof It is 2005, just before landfall. Here I am, a labyrinth, and I am a mess. I am located at the corner of Waterway and Bluff. I need your help. You will find me to the left of the graveyard, where the trees grow especially talkative at night, where fog and alcohol rub off the edge. We burn to make one another sing; to stay the lake that it not boil, earth not rock. We are running on Aztec time, fifth and final cycle. Eyes switch on/off. We would be mercurochrome to one another bee balm or chamomile. We should be concrete, glass and spandex. We should be digital, or at least, early. Be ivory-billed. Invisible except to the most prepared observer. We will be stardust. Ancient tailings of nothing. Elapsed breath. No, we must first be ice. Be nails. Be teeth. Be lightning. 392 | Eleven More American Women Poets in the 21st Century Mack trapped a spider Kept in a pepper jar He named her Iris Caught roaches to feed her He loved Iris When Iris died He wrote her a letter from Rising, Falling, Hovering Re: Happiness, in pursuit thereof It is 2005, just before landfall. Here I am, a labyrinth, and I am a mess. I am located at the corner of Waterway and Bluff. I need your help. You will find me to the left of the graveyard, where the trees grow especially talkative at night, where fog and alcohol rub off the edge. We burn to make one another sing; to stay the lake that it not boil, earth not rock. We are running on Aztec time, fifth and final cycle. Eyes switch on/off. We would be mercurochrome to one another bee balm or chamomile. We should be concrete, glass and spandex. We should be digital, or at least, early. Be ivory-billed. Invisible except to the most prepared observer. We will be stardust. Ancient tailings of nothing. Elapsed breath. No, we must first be ice. Be nails. Be teeth. Be lightning. ...