after Kim Addonizio
Like thorns that announce the petal.
The erratic kindness, a smattering of good deeds.
A morning destination sunk back into sand.
An eruption of thirst, drown in it.
Sometimes you appear like a far harbor.
Gasping boats swim to you.
Sometimes you are the baggage unclaimed.
The reassuring whir, a repetition that can only be mechanical.
You fall asleep missing the company of crickets.
Their mating songs calm you.
The abandoned attraction.
You check your reflection. Are you window or mirror?
That time you were yourself.
That time it was suddenly past midnight.
That time you resembled the exotic.
The smoke and the aftertaste, the scratchy respite at the back of your throat.
And, once a month, a bright penny of moon.
Ways of Being Right by Jane Medved | Garden Lavender Poetry Reed Diffuser Set
Jane Medved is the author of Wayfarers (winner of the Off The Grid Prize, Grid Books 2024), Deep Calls To Deep (winner of the Many Voices Project, New Rivers Press 2017) and the chapbook Olam, Shana, Nefesh (Finishing Line Press). Her translation of Wherever We Float, That’s Home (by Maya Tevet Dayan) won the Malinda A. Markham Translation Prize (published by Saturnalia Books 2024) Recent work can be seen in Sheila-Na-Gig, Plume, Swwim, River Heron Review and Bending Genres. She alternates as poetry and cnf editor of The Ilanot Review. Visit her at janemedved.net
