POUR, TEAR, CARVE

Framed in Black

By Laine Derr

—after Whitfield Lovell’s Kin XLI (Fauna)

For a decade, I gave my time
to a 6 by 9, years of one long
day, remembering at age 10

I spoke in feathered tongues – 

To know my love (is)
To know my loss (as) 

It dances, from last I heard,
through the pines, singing – 

This is how to spell facetious
How to weigh a box of wings
I see the world hunching over

[a block of government cheese]

Laine Derr holds an MFA from Northern Arizona University and has published interviews with Carl Phillips, Ross Gay, Ted Kooser, and Robert Pinsky. Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming from Antithesis, ZYZZYVA, Portland Review, Chapter House, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere.