USA

finchar@muohio.edu

Website: http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~finchar/

Chain Of Women

These are the seasons Persephone promised
as she turned on her heel;
the ones that darken, till green no longer
bandages what I feel-

(Body of our thread unbroken,
thread me into flower.
I follow the links of your voices
through the edges of my body.)

Now touches of gold stipple the branches,
promising weeks of time
to fade through, finding the footprints
she left as she turned to climb.

first published in Prairie Schooner

Over Dark Arches

Naked and thin and wet as if with rain,
bursting I come out of somewhere, bursting again.
And like a great building that breathes under sunlight
over dark arches, your body is there,

And my milk moves under your tongue-

where currents from earth linger under cool stone
rising to me and my mouth makes a circle
over your silence

You reach through your mouth to find me-

Bursting out of your body that held me for years,
as the rain wets the earth with its bodies-

And my thoughts are milk to feed you

till we turn and are empty,

till we turn and are full.

first published in Beloit Poetry Journal

© All Copyright, Annie Finch.
All Rights Reserved. Printed By Permission.