Poetry Suite by Elena Caban
“lay with me in the red, the hot-salt noon.”
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return to varadero
hard bulk of a black ship in lead rain, the. prow a split-woman, red wood, no palm
full breast, no eye
but this: a white sea-sun, rough glare of the shore.
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foal
the dark, sweet blood, the. flies, tree-rot, the wound. her mud-hooves, my own sweat-palms.
i pray: oh mother, oh soft and stupid muzzle, go on: love the bone-legs, your whimpering blue.
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the cabin
sleet, thick logs, dead car. we kill screen doors
with shovels. at night, we flee
chase black, slow bears, tell moon to slice her face.
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emma's lament
rock-face, languorous tongue, i. love your silk-palm, cool teeth, your glacial
mass: love, i beg you: blot the ink, the pear-slick word, and. come: lay with me,
unspeaking: lay, lay with me in the red, the hot-salt noon.
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the death of sappho, or to history
rock-ledge, the wheat, hurt gold, i lift my arms, cracked lips, and
take me split me i will be flesh, torn linen, red surf
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sappho and cleis
and, i, i am with girl-child, a dark, sweet plum. hurt, my lips, my mother-tongue, and.
darling, let me: i will bring you out on white, clean snow.
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the gift
in may, loose clap. of the dull-wings,
hard fur. now, shot eyes will seek the bright
fat bugs held out by moon.
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Header image courtesy of Angela Buron. To view a Photography Feature of her work, go here.