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Lustrous Fugitive

O my Goddess come …….. and see

…………. how I will the long now

how memory’s return device guest-hosts my one
…………………………… featherweight life on a median island

Goddess …….. will you will the time of will I to end
…………………………… my infinite future empty of children

end my disgrace of form
…………………………… expectant of mask and muzzle

Three of your puffs and a deep sand produces bones

…………. then you flee Earth into me
…………………………… Lustrous Fugitive

I am suddenly one of grotesque mingling
…………………………… by a spell of turning into someone else

My face Slavic ruin and torn
…………………………… between longing and safety and

those limbs of his …… deviling …… mind’s body’s bygones

…………. Semblance I am

…………………. I one and no one

at the edge of the fortress of trees
………………………………………… berries black and rasp

something of womanhood
…………………………… extracted to a wilderness

Jami Macarty_CREDIT- Vincent K. WongJami Macarty gratefully recognizes Native Nations of the West—especially the Coast Salish and O’odham—as the traditional and rightful owners of lands where she has the great privilege to live and work—as a teacher at Simon Fraser University, as editor of the online poetry magazine The Maynard, and as a writer of essays, reviews, and poetry. She is the author of The Minuses (Center for Literary Publishing, 2020), winner of the 2020 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award – Poetry Arizona, and three chapbooks, including Mind of Spring (Vallum, 2017), winner of the 2017 Vallum Chapbook Award. Her work has been honored by financial support from Arizona Commission on the Arts, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, British Columbia Arts Council, and The Community of Writers, and by editors at literary publications such as Beloit Poetry Journal, The Capilano Review, The Fiddlehead, Interim, The Rumpus, Vallum, and Volt. 

18_1coverThis poem was originally published in Vallum issue 18:1 Invisibility.

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