Jacksonville, Vermont
Because I am not married, I have the skin of an orange
that has spent its life in the dark. Inside the orange I am blind.
I cannot tell when a hand reaches in and breaks
the atoms of the blood. Sometimes a blackbird will bring the wind
into my hair. Or the yellow clouds falling on the cold floor
are animals fighting each other
out of their drifting misery. All the women I have known
have been ruined by fog and the deer crossing the field at night.
Copyright Credit: Jason Shinder, “Jacksonville, Vermont” from Stupid Hope. Copyright © 2009 by Jason Shinder. Reprinted by permission of Graywolf Press. www.graywolfpress.org
Source: Stupid Hope (Graywolf Press, 2009)