the national poetry month issue || vigils
TRANSCRIPT
University of Northern Iowa
VigilsAuthor(s): Jenifer Browne LawrenceSource: The North American Review, Vol. 291, No. 2, The National Poetry Month Issue (Mar. -Apr., 2006), p. 8Published by: University of Northern IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25127548 .
Accessed: 12/06/2014 16:51
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NAR
MICHAEL LAUCHLAN
Writing the Light
During breakfast, I run for the camera
between forkfuls of eggs and potatoes because the angle of light and shadow on the folds of the sheer curtain
suggests a woman leaning in a doorway
looking back absently (slipping one foot
from a shoe and flexing her toes) at one who would love her
if he saw her draw through tired lips this invisible breath?miraculous, if seen, as the backstage glimpse
of Degas' exhausted dancers,
spent, footsore, lovely as the light. JENIFER BROWNE LAWRENCE
Vigils
The field mouse lay on the garage floor
like a dropped rag.
We huddled close to see if the mouse was dead or only playing, bowed our heads in the dim light,
our hair hanging in a circle above our shoes.
The mouse gathered its legs beneath it, closed its eyes.
The scent of oil and gasoline rose from my father's motorcycle where it rested on upended milk crates, so that years later,
gathered around his hospital bed behind pink and brown curtains
this is what I smell, this memory of mouse and oil,
that long vigil until exhaustion and daylight overtook us and we nodded at the suggestion.
FINALISTS JAMES HEARST POETRY PRIZE
8 NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW March-April 2006
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