Pantoum for Dark Lands

 
                after Aase Berg
 
 
 
it is my fear that tears apart the place.

apart the strange, apart the fat rose

in its muddy bed. tears the cave in two.

a wild hare bleats until its neck bleeds.

 

apart the strange, apart the fat rose

unraveling its petals into glass. this:

a wild hare bleats until its neck bleeds.

a catastrophe that has already happened—

 

unraveling its petals into glass. this:

avoiding it. bringing it back and dissecting it,

the catastrophe that has already happened,

where I forget all the dead animals.

 

avoiding it. bringing it back and dissecting it—

it is my fear that tears apart the place,

where I forget all the dead animals

in their muddy beds. tearing the cave in two.
 
 
 
 
 
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Sara Ryan is a third-year poetry MFA candidate at Northern Michigan University and an associate poetry editor for Passages North. Her work has been published in or is forthcoming from Tinderbox, Slice Magazine, New South, Third Coast, Fairy Tale Review, The Blueshift Journal, Yemassee, Third Point Press and others.