The actors mill about the party saying rhubarb because other words do not sound like conversation. In the kitchen, always, one who's just discovered beauty, his mouth full of whiskey and strawberries. He practices the texture of her hair with his tongue; in her, five billion electrons pop their atoms. Rhubarb in
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Recorded for Poem-a-Day, August 1, 2018.
Sea Sonnet: Dakar, 2018
I begged for tongues the way that I was taught—: hanala si ke andana—: whispered close. Was this the Holy Spirit that I sought?—: Bashful tongue drawing silence from my throat. Trinity lesson, clicked behind my teeth, Welling like memory I stood to receive There at the altar. Blood that flowed beneath Scripture an ocean gave me to believe. Atlantic, how you sing to me my own! Rhythm of roar and stillness, treasured still, Hushed in my marrow ] shut up in my bones! [ Less like a fire than crash and salt of will Preserving as the sunset breathes the sky, Parsing the wave’s lip pressed into a sigh....
Copyright © 2018 by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on August 1, 2018, by the Academy of American Poets.
Copyright © 2018 by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on August 1, 2018, by the Academy of American Poets.

Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon is the author of ] Open Interval [ (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009).