The Threaded Loop
Gown of salmon and mantelet
over the coast
she shoulders with the winter sun.
I finger a pearl clasp through
the threaded loop
and then her back shows, descending
into the sea.
Running with a chasing wind
behind the elk,
her death day split my tongue
into ribs and flint
to give the timber wolf
of the forest and mountain cloud
bleeding the fawn on the ground.
The wild light shines
without our prayers or offering,
I will still keep hers
in a metal box of smooth beach stones
and torn cloth and knife teeth
singing to the killed
we will be alone.
- John Swain 2016
John Swain lives in Louisville, Kentucky,
USA. Least Bittern Books published his second collection, Under the
Mountain Born.
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