volume 14 number 2
by Jane Downs
dear ankle bone, hands, larynx, dearly deceased, once treasured, undreamed of sun-struck face, hallowed be thy name; impossibility of roses, honey, burn; dear shade should I have loved you more? on the table in the reliquary—yellow hair, unfolded prayers, squares of tattered lace; dearest night-reader, night-scribbler, desperate dreamer; dear fingernails, areola, vertebrae, pockmark; please stay; dear jaw bone, ribcage, dark eye-hole; blind-folded girl falling into black lake can you endure such beauty? the unknowable room? dear separated, opaque, numinous, your name keeps falling, let me feel you near, make the rocking chair rock, whisper air into my ear, touch my holding hand, bow your head before the open