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Nicole Mauro

Ode to Barbara Guest

Full Noon


I.
In a string of kite — separation and connection

the concern for time — eventual breakage

A wind could ripple through — the texture of paper
a woman of thread unravels

a solitary cry
between centuries

a solitary cry


Dark falls — flora is restless


A sky poised above — that I can see, shifting in bed

The solid body is led through crocuses
You who are outside its vicinity will oscillate — a creature flying
into an edifice


II.
Text affixed to a specific sky — wall trembled and shed

allegories remained invisibly  

a woman flying instead

a thumb in a child
a century I strung together
a solitary cry
rippled the ledges

books slide off tables — a creature leapt to its death


Then day


tenderly, between the lines — a kite into an edifice



Note: The italicized portions of the ode are from Barbara Guest’s books: either Quill, Solitary, APPARITION, or Fair Realism.



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