Skarn

/ Issue 11.2 /

I scooped up a mass of wet clay.
I doodled in the margins.

In the negative space of branches
I built whims and scenarios
and in the streaking weeks

of your dying I stretched open
the speck on the map, squirmed through

and we landed with a bounce
on the pine straw. Tang of resin,
wiggling campfire and jokes.

And we climbed the famous mountain,
and into the pool of the famous waterfall

we threw stones and listened
for an affirming plunk. The wind

sidled through the woods
until we arrived above the timberline
where the air became too fine,

slower, slow as lichen, and though
I was holding you close as a pulse
you got far ahead of me

and then into your hand I felt
the quick marble come.

Michelle Boisseau

Michelle Boisseau

Michelle Boisseau published five books of poetry, most recently Among the Gorgons (University of Tampa Press, 2016) and A Sunday in God-Years (University of Arkansas Press, 2009). She was twice awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. She was invited by the late Robert Wallace to co-write the textbook Writing Poems (Longman), now in its eighth edition. She taught for 22 years at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she served as Senior Editor of BkMk Press and Contributing Editor of New Letters. A lifelong baseball fan and a graduate of the University of Houston doctoral program in Creative Writing, Michelle, who died in November 2017, lived to see a team she loved—the Houston Astros—win the World Series.
Michelle Boisseau

Also by Michelle Boisseau (see all)

Author: Michelle Boisseau

Michelle Boisseau published five books of poetry, most recently Among the Gorgons (University of Tampa Press, 2016) and A Sunday in God-Years (University of Arkansas Press, 2009). She was twice awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. She was invited by the late Robert Wallace to co-write the textbook Writing Poems (Longman), now in its eighth edition. She taught for 22 years at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she served as Senior Editor of BkMk Press and Contributing Editor of New Letters. A lifelong baseball fan and a graduate of the University of Houston doctoral program in Creative Writing, Michelle, who died in November 2017, lived to see a team she loved—the Houston Astros—win the World Series.