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Today's poem is by Sara Jane Stoner

Sanitarium Bell
       

I confess, my caregivers / / / become the belfry / / / boundary
no regret / / / be a close call / / / recommend intimacy / / /
remain I close in the galloping / / / of our intersectional lists
/ / / consider which dead to want you / / / as you marry text
next / / / our lists' insufficiency to account / / / for the flux
crux of all entanglement

what shape is your will / / / when you're taking it / / / are
they a gardener's tools / / / for a body

take care in from such positions / / / take voice take voice / / /
the cup is already full with a body / / / and we fill it for a
wrong / / / a crop a shear / / / only animals can hear / / /
bent in gentle thrills / / / over dirty sinks / / / the difference
between the total war / / / and the total war

I am looking for bulk nudity / / / and the evacuation of the
unlit impulse / / / two fingers is not enough / / / in the
reflection / / / that surrounds the grinding force / / / those
oceans wading mountain spine / / / your slow orbit / / / fast
rotation

You are the light / / / and you don't belong to me / / / a spring
a well / / / blur my blue white in the cold warm brown / / / I
release the monuments from our grip / / / my everything and
nothing—

I have a few things to say / / / like every day feel / / / the
smoke rolling down your mass / / / beyond your weight / / /
doesn't matter that it wasn't my state / / / wasn't my girl / / /
wasn't my dead reaching into me / / / I rang

Knock me gently and I'll ring / / / Have you seen the crumbling
town / / / through that grimy window / / / in the mirror in the
mirror / / / recognized it as your own

hard and something smelling / / / in between / / / a bellow
and a rattle / / / what was once a nerve / / / now a slap and
poppy down / / / not whether but what kind / / / what kind of
kind / / / will be the question for your town



Copyright © 2017 Sara Jane Stoner All rights reserved
from Black Warrior Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission

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