What rewards the body the body
a soldier / the body a name / a holiness
before sleep. Say you understood / say
nettles say feathers / say holy and mean
ancient / say homeward and mean gone
each shore-light falters / say my apologies
to your salt / oh lord / do not take yourself
to trial there are days / there are signs
in the dirt / whatever was meant
by the road is known only by the road
the mountain chase / the desert chase
the lake all rimmed in millweed
what child, what comes and should
I ask for the match / should I say please
days flame up like oil / please / I may beg
say that word / in my ear say it / so close say it
so I’ll know whatever is given is received.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 21, Issue 4.
A. M. Brandt’s work has appeared in The Southern Review, The Sewanee Review, and the National Poetry Review, among many others. A native north-midwesterner, she teaches at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA where she lives with her husband and daughter.
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