Locution IV: I weep for this world by Nicole Rollender

So many ways to break / open / but invisible. / These translucencies / I know
spindling / a pulse / a toothache / no one sees / the impressions / these old
blackouts / migraines looking through / shattered glass / the body held down
by a man / a brown horse going by / honey / an orchard / I walk / because all
the difficult days / that cinnamon liquor / the resin / trapping me. / Salt, stars.
The sound of the tea / kettle. Clink of spoons / slowing it all down. / Plums.
Nettles. Brambling / in my gut. Start / of the baby / my son. / A bliss. Bleed.
A moment from now / a week / a month. Incommensurable / time / to grow
his bones. / His irises / rising / his fists / his gleam. / A thick root / the world
growing brighter. / The wind rushing / up the slope. / Pines more alive / sweet
sapped / than I recall. / A stranger singing / beyond this line. / I’m taken. I
remember / my grandfather playing / the violin / the squeak / the disharmony’s
rage of joy. / In Van Gogh’s starry / night / I still lose / myself / heaving body
no longer a straight line. / There’s no face / like his. / I became huge / a globe
with new languages. / Yet, he flies from me.

A 2017 NJ Council on the Arts poetry fellow, Nicole Rollender is the author of the poetry collection, Louder Than Everything You Love (Five Oaks Press), and four poetry chapbooks. She has won poetry prizes from Palette Poetry, Gigantic Sequins, CALYX Journal and Ruminate Magazine. Her work appears in Alaska Quarterly Review, Best New Poets, Ninth Letter, Puerto del Sol, Salt Hill Journal and West Branch, among many other journals. Nicole holds an MFA from the Pennsylvania State University. She’s also co-founder and CEO of Strand Writing Services. Visit her online: www.nicolemrollender.com.