on the corner of sky and lamppost. I will look for you so wear your eyes. Wear your face that has slept in curls. I will breathe the tulip scent of your hair and the sidewalk’s soot-lined snow. Don’t forget to bring your delicate feet, those edible toes uncold in your oversized men’s boots. I will come with my hands holding bread — broad loaves creased with rosemary. And I will come with wine, two plumy reds bearing bicycles, top hats, and names we cannot pronounce. Bring your accordion mouth and your love of emptiness. Bring a fire and the wild nest of your neck. Bring your open throat.
From Hadara Bar-Nadav’s “The Frame Called Ruin,” New Issues Press, 2012.
Hadara Bar-Nadav is the author of “Lullaby (with Exit Sign),” “The Frame Called Ruin” and “A Glass of Milk to Kiss Goodnight” and is co-author of the best-selling textbook “Writing Poems, Eighth Edition.” She is an associate professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
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