Jill Alexander Essbaum
Heart, I will return in Spring
with hands to hot, green sky and I
will pluck the grass on your dirt’s curbs.
And I will paw the clays and browns
and I will dig up everything
your air exudes. And I will sneakthief
plums, your apples and your bones.
Never say I’m stealing all
you own. The cottages. Their cool,
curled smoke. Black radish in the field.
The farmers’ wives. The sons of farmers’
wives. My lover won’t return
with me. My lover won’t return.
Not to the winehills or the goat
corrals. Not to the river where
the birds wear bells. Heart, I will
return to peg my dress on night’s
stone lintel. Let my reticence
go red on lips of whisky jars.
I’ll perl my skin into a sword
and charge the moon. Her roundabout,
resuscitating mouth. Her white
and otherwise unfathomable cloud.
Jill Alexander Essbaum is the award-winning author of several collections of poetry including, most recently, Would-Land (Cooper Dillon Books, 2020). Her first novel Hausfrau (Random House, 2015) debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List and has been translated into 26 languages. Her work has appeared in dozens of journals including Poetry, The Christian Century, Image, and The Rumpus, as well as multiple Best American Poetry anthologies. Jill is a core faculty member in The Low Residency MFA Program at University of California-Palm Desert. She lives in Austin, Texas.
Return to November 2020 Edition
with hands to hot, green sky and I
will pluck the grass on your dirt’s curbs.
And I will paw the clays and browns
and I will dig up everything
your air exudes. And I will sneakthief
plums, your apples and your bones.
Never say I’m stealing all
you own. The cottages. Their cool,
curled smoke. Black radish in the field.
The farmers’ wives. The sons of farmers’
wives. My lover won’t return
with me. My lover won’t return.
Not to the winehills or the goat
corrals. Not to the river where
the birds wear bells. Heart, I will
return to peg my dress on night’s
stone lintel. Let my reticence
go red on lips of whisky jars.
I’ll perl my skin into a sword
and charge the moon. Her roundabout,
resuscitating mouth. Her white
and otherwise unfathomable cloud.
Jill Alexander Essbaum is the award-winning author of several collections of poetry including, most recently, Would-Land (Cooper Dillon Books, 2020). Her first novel Hausfrau (Random House, 2015) debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List and has been translated into 26 languages. Her work has appeared in dozens of journals including Poetry, The Christian Century, Image, and The Rumpus, as well as multiple Best American Poetry anthologies. Jill is a core faculty member in The Low Residency MFA Program at University of California-Palm Desert. She lives in Austin, Texas.
Return to November 2020 Edition