In the tallgrass
where all gold starts
wind became
my additional lover.
His hand the inflorescence
one finger partially gone—
Lovegrass/
Panicgrass/
Witchgrass./
**
I carefully researched
how to bait my trap.
Took the small blonde charmer
out of town.
Stealer of cholla,
eater of sun murdered plants.
I knew it would die coming back.
**
Ajo lilies
now up to my waist.
What blackened
the opal knowledge—
What his ghost finger traced.
Copyright © 2017 by Louise Mathias. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 18, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.
Death is a beige Mercedes sedan.
I am five and riding
In the back,
Eating small white chocolates,
My long, thin body
Along the butter-
Soft red leather seat.
What I want is to become
What I was
Before the accident.
You think
I’m a rumor.
I move from one world
To the next
Living inside a mink
Lined winter,
God’s child-
Like voice
Singing quietly
Inside me.
Cynthia Cruz, "Erstling" from How the End Begins. Copyright © 2016 by Cynthia Cruz. Used with permission of Four Way Books, www.fourwaybooks.com.