Bet Giyorgis
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First, forgive the myth.
A pink-skinned iteration less egregious against
this monolith you want to say.
Forgive yourself the error of wanting to
reverse yourself, to say the body has
no bearing on this rock as though this cross were carved from soap.
Your man? He wants to wash not just your mouth out but your memory with it,
your un-forgiveness
unforgiveable— Andromeda.
He has imagined your dragon
a crocodile to kill, his sword and not some stone look
to save you. But you—
you mean to keep this landscape, the way the rock does not
impose upon it. [End Page 867]
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon is the author of Open Interval, a National Book Award finalist, and Black Swan, winner of the 2001 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. She teaches in the English Department at Cornell University.
