Ex Voto for a Man I Loved
Coat Lining (scrap of a Relic), Silver, Cotton Thread
On the Night I Realized I was Beautiful:
I was not there among the brick laid streets we walked and wound away from all we were, but I was here: in days past you and them and out of time. I was the west: past the grey and rolling hills I did not know along no rivers and no plains, it seemed long past the summer dank and peeling off like silt and sweat and youth that we had lost, as you had held my hand in June. And long past reconciling, there was God: from the edge of us and them to all I was, all thin in lace and cream and peach and blushed and burned from lessons I had learned: from him and you and them and her before me. We were there as we had hoped, I heard her say inside the glass, and my fear grew, and you promised it would pass. And that night when I believed you, I slept in peace.
