Your forearm-long
brown leaves flop
and I dig you up,
Roots and all
and all in all
vellum skinned
knuckle bulb
little fist
belonging
in my hand,
take me where
grandmother
reaches down—
every clove’s
a cradle
Your forearm-long
brown leaves flop
and I dig you up,
Roots and all
and all in all
vellum skinned
knuckle bulb
little fist
belonging
in my hand,
take me where
grandmother
reaches down—
every clove’s
a cradle
John Martone is the author of of Giovanni Pascoli: O Little One and Selected Poems, which appeared earlier this year from Laertes Books. His most recent collection of poems is Homelands, and he is currently translating the letters and writings of the anchoress Nazarena of Jesus, OSB.
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