Forest/Cathedral

 
The watch-fires receded.

The angle of the sky was a murmur.

You went outside and shot a pig.

 

Here, now, I have no blood

or water from the river.

I hold my hand up to the sky

and smile.

 

You have God in your pants-pocket

and an animal skin.

The lamp is lit and dreaming,

the corn is burning in the barn,

my mouth is dust and star-stuff.

 

I couldn’t call you home.
 
 
 

Jessica Poli is the author of the chapbooks Alexia (Sixth Finch), Glassland (JMWW), and The Egg Mistress (Gold Line Press). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Caketrain, Sonora Review, and Southern Indiana Review, among others. She is a graduate of Syracuse University’s MFA program and the editor of Birdfeast.