Caitlin Neely
Season
Day ends at noon. You blackberry, you darken.
Evening—shimmer body, shimmer breath and materialize.
Salt-ground, your dress high above your ankles,
the world splitting open. You are happy.
You think you are the happiest you have been.
God-tongue, mouth of Greek and mud.
The field kneels. It is yours.
* The line “the world splitting open” is taken from a letter Sylvia Plath sent to her mother.
Bride with Violets in Her Lap
All night long, snow-struck.
Lake song, the bouquet
behind the dress of a bridesmaid.
All night long, winter.
Bury your hands in him, bury
him. Having come from field,
having come from rust. Hands
shut in prayer. All night long,
scraping of heaven against pine.
* The title and the line "all night long" are taken from fragment number 30 in Anne Carson's If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho
Caitlin Neely is an MFA candidate at the University of Virginia. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in DIAGRAM, Devil’s Lake and Banango Street. She is the founder of The MFA Years.
Return to July 2015 Edition
Day ends at noon. You blackberry, you darken.
Evening—shimmer body, shimmer breath and materialize.
Salt-ground, your dress high above your ankles,
the world splitting open. You are happy.
You think you are the happiest you have been.
God-tongue, mouth of Greek and mud.
The field kneels. It is yours.
* The line “the world splitting open” is taken from a letter Sylvia Plath sent to her mother.
Bride with Violets in Her Lap
All night long, snow-struck.
Lake song, the bouquet
behind the dress of a bridesmaid.
All night long, winter.
Bury your hands in him, bury
him. Having come from field,
having come from rust. Hands
shut in prayer. All night long,
scraping of heaven against pine.
* The title and the line "all night long" are taken from fragment number 30 in Anne Carson's If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho
Caitlin Neely is an MFA candidate at the University of Virginia. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in DIAGRAM, Devil’s Lake and Banango Street. She is the founder of The MFA Years.
Return to July 2015 Edition