Pamplemousse

The Student Literary Journal of Vermont State University

Blue

Poetry

And you are full
of winking.

A convex ceiling
blistered. Riddled.

Some call you god
and light the flames

            of their throats.

Men sigh
their little clouds.

Hours of last requests.

The moon throws shade
over the vacant

host and all
the romantical corpses,

            husks of clove and rot.

Wind burns its way
through the cracks.

You, the surround
and inbound:

            veins flowing
            into sky,

            sea falling
            into a mind of midnight.

Flox, acacia,
some pretty things

            blue-lipped,

that beat the right
side of your brow.

HADARA BAR-NADAV is the author of Lullaby (with Exit Sign), awarded the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize; The Frame Called Ruin, Runner Up for the Green Rose Prize; and A Glass of Milk to Kiss Goodnight, awarded the Margie Book Prize. She is also the author of two chapbooks, Fountain and Furnace, awarded the Sunken Garden Prize, and Show Me Yours, awarded the Midwest Poets Series Prize. In addition, she is co-author of the best-selling textbook Writing Poems, 8th ed. Recent awards include the Lynda Hull Memorial Poetry Prize from Crazyhorse and fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Hadara is currently Associate Professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.