Marie-Elizabeth Mali
Uncompassed
Sometimes I want to stick a poker in God’s eye,
until I see the winter tree’s few curled leaves.
I’m not the only thing that clings. As long
as there’s no dirt in my mouth, I’m fine.
The snow-covered mountain hides behind
a cloud, but once I get further down the road
it lifts its veil and winks. I’m the untied shoelace
that makes walking an adventure. A million
tiny eyes peer out of the snowbank. I no longer
fear them. The room is humming and it’s not
the fridge. I listen with my whole skin for the sound.
In the dark, the curb feels like an abyss. My feet, wings.
Marie-Elizabeth Mali is the author of Steady, My Gaze (Tebot Bach, 2011) and co-editor with Annie Finch of the anthology, Villanelles (Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets, 2012). For more information, please visit www.memali.com
Return to March 2014 Edition
Sometimes I want to stick a poker in God’s eye,
until I see the winter tree’s few curled leaves.
I’m not the only thing that clings. As long
as there’s no dirt in my mouth, I’m fine.
The snow-covered mountain hides behind
a cloud, but once I get further down the road
it lifts its veil and winks. I’m the untied shoelace
that makes walking an adventure. A million
tiny eyes peer out of the snowbank. I no longer
fear them. The room is humming and it’s not
the fridge. I listen with my whole skin for the sound.
In the dark, the curb feels like an abyss. My feet, wings.
Marie-Elizabeth Mali is the author of Steady, My Gaze (Tebot Bach, 2011) and co-editor with Annie Finch of the anthology, Villanelles (Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets, 2012). For more information, please visit www.memali.com
Return to March 2014 Edition