Autumn Damask
Come.
Let me show you
the blown open roses
of nearly November.
Geese land in a card deck shuffle.
Their fingers sweep the ground
then plait down the body.
Lie fetal on the ground.
In the Midwest you will see
the world split—
a lidded eye drawn open as if
by marionette leads.
The willows are four crowns pointing down.
Comfort is when
you are tethered
to a place
you couldn’t move
fast from anyway.
Roam the ground where you are
mapped, flat and free, beneath
this sky, this new sea.
—
This selection comes from Sandy Marchetti’s book A Detail in the Landscape, available from Eating Dog Press. Purchase your copy here!
Sandra Marchetti is the author of Confluence, a full-length poetry collection forthcoming from Gold Wake Press. Eating Dog Press published an illustrated edition of her essays and poetry, A Detail in the Landscape, in 2014, and her chapbook, The Canopy, is available from MWC Press. Sandy also won Second Prize in Prick of the Spindle’s 2014 Poetry Open and was a finalist in Gulf Coast’s Poetry Prize. Her work appears in The Journal, Subtropics, The Hollins Critic, Sugar House Review, Mid-American Review, Thrush Poetry Journal, Green Mountains Review, South Dakota Review, and elsewhere.
Andrew Koch’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Bluestem, Connotation Press, Mojo, Rust + Moth, and others. Although a Tennessee-native, Andrew presently lives in Spokane, Washington with his wife and cat while teaching literature and pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at Eastern Washington University.
