Instructions Before Stuttering

Tread where the name has prepared
A full name full of desire
Clay like plenty
Love is sensitive
In the space of crying
The name goes ahead
To prepare you
Grasp the vessel
With both hands and
Walk slow
A road of red clover
Opens—

Copyright © 2023 by JJJJJerome Ellis. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 6, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets.