Sarah Pape
After a Long Time Married
—a golden shovel after Margaret Atwood
I wake to your face, where you
end. At first, some things fit
riotously when drawn into
another. No smear or haunt of me
left to witness or answer back. Like
barbed wire held tight to a limb, a
tree, time and pressure hook
metal to wood, wood into
ceremonial singularity—an
inexorable bond. As the eye
makes meaning of light, a
crack in the anniversary vase, a fish
lives its remainder with the hook.
Your body, your you-ness, is an
invitation to harm, to open―
the only tool to hold you, my eye.
Sarah Pape teaches English and works as the Managing Editor of Watershed Review at Chico State. Her poetry and prose has recently been published or is forthcoming in: New England Review, Passages North, Ecotone, Crab Orchard Review, Bluestem, The Pinch, Smartish Pace, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and others. Her chapbook, Ruination Atlas, was published this year (dancing girl press). She curates community literary programming and is a member of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Check out her website for more: Visit her website: www.sarahpape.com.
Return to September 2018 Edition
—a golden shovel after Margaret Atwood
I wake to your face, where you
end. At first, some things fit
riotously when drawn into
another. No smear or haunt of me
left to witness or answer back. Like
barbed wire held tight to a limb, a
tree, time and pressure hook
metal to wood, wood into
ceremonial singularity—an
inexorable bond. As the eye
makes meaning of light, a
crack in the anniversary vase, a fish
lives its remainder with the hook.
Your body, your you-ness, is an
invitation to harm, to open―
the only tool to hold you, my eye.
Sarah Pape teaches English and works as the Managing Editor of Watershed Review at Chico State. Her poetry and prose has recently been published or is forthcoming in: New England Review, Passages North, Ecotone, Crab Orchard Review, Bluestem, The Pinch, Smartish Pace, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and others. Her chapbook, Ruination Atlas, was published this year (dancing girl press). She curates community literary programming and is a member of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Check out her website for more: Visit her website: www.sarahpape.com.
Return to September 2018 Edition