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Sugar Magnolia Wilson. Image by Caitlin Mahon
Sugar Magnolia Wilson. Image by Caitlin Mahon

BooksMarch 8, 2019

The Friday Poem: Spent by Sugar Magnolia Wilson

Sugar Magnolia Wilson. Image by Caitlin Mahon
Sugar Magnolia Wilson. Image by Caitlin Mahon

New work by Fern Flat poet Sugar Magnolia Wilson.

 

Spent

 

The night sky is full of

 stars but

 

we are more clever than

most – we know

they are just

      burned bones.

 

Nothing beautiful –

 

not space sailors blown

from their ships – the light from

treasure quickly grasped

in their fists

 

only reaching us now.

 

It’s a useless kind of light –

    unspendable.

 

The palm of your hand lies

on my knee

                  like a gold coin

        donation

 

trying to free up my joints

 

but I don’t feel like

     moving

          or shining.

 

And your voice has had

its heartwood cut out

 

a woodpecker taps a hollow

sound against

the bark casing where

 

other things dwell

now – rats and

stoats, wide-mouthed

egg-swallowers too.

 

In the dark your face

is different – you have more

teeth than normal and

                       your mouth

 

looks expensive.

 

Sugar Magnolia Wilson, 2019

 

Spinoff poetry editor Ashleigh Young welcomes submissions for The Friday Poem at thefridaypoem@gmail.com

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