Ghost, Fountain

By Elise Paschen

— Gaetano Donizetti, “Lucia di Lammermoor”

                 Be remote
A while from malice and from murdering.
— Gwendolyn Brooks

water this fountain
where I am yoked

sun-break he holds
you how once I

this secret dark
dagger my body

rip off the collar
your cage don’t wait

my neck his breath
these woods this water

my waist his ring
his grip blood sister

Source: Poetry (June 2017)