The wovenness
        for Diane Glancy

By days may we be set right        by the wovenness        that unfurls        unrehearsed to arrive        at the

appointed hour        by knit to unknit the loam        of all known teachings        as a frost undoes        its

varnish        as by the hard ground        a fox sneaks over        may we be set right        we who become as we

are made        the way sewing predicts        its lovely seam        by days sleeting        or clear        to see the way

the cold air        shores itself        then disappears        by bright sunshine        counted backwards        from the

last room we were in        together        bright as bright        the one before that        and so on        by the letting

and the let’s-keep        to return to years of befores        by school-        fire-        and ordinary house        to admit

the high road        where a wind disavows        our seamlessness        and by dint of        a thief’s shelter        do

we marry        the us kept back        to us taken        a wovenness        by a thin sheet        to cover        those we

unfurl alongside        those we pack close        as if by song in throat        to find throat        by days to knit as

knits        the bright wovenness        of our presence        to a woven absence        by such days as        day sets right

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Copyright © 2019 Carol Ann Davis All rights reserved
from Beloit Poetry Journal
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission