Every clove’s / a cradle (Pxhere)

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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