white and birds-eyes black
black the counting sheep
one shivering ewe’s
fleece oils my hand

I spin to song      a whir of wheel
spin wool so fine

the loom I dress in lines and yards
round and round the beam
threads threaded in the heddles eyes
through the beater
threads dream of kites twisting sky
drawn and held
while weft flies high flies low through warp

in fall chill wind I step among the flock
dressed in spring-spun summer wove
I walk among flying leaves
wrapped in the ewe’s old coat

♦

years later
in a cold house
too large for my echoing steps
the moths eat me whole
eat me small
to tatters and rags
my past undressed

as  I someday will lie
with stone and seed
walking in the pastures
of your minds’ eye

Eve Rifkah

---

Eve Rifkah  was co-founder of Poetry Oasis, Inc. (1998-2012), a non-profit poetry association dedicated to education and promoting local poets as well as the founder and editor of DINER, a literary magazine with a seven-year run. She is author of Dear Suzanne  and Outcasts the Penikese Leper Hospital 1905-1921, as well as the chapbooks, Scar Tissue and  At the Leprosarium, the 2003 winner of the Revelever Chapbook Contest.

Artwork: Oleg Oprisco, collaboration with Ohhio
Website: https://www.oprisco.com/

31 Jul This entry was published on July 31, 2020 at 12:09 am and is filed under 43 (July 2020), Current Issue, Poetry. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.