Child in the Road. Cindy Savett

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      Child in the Road

      Cindy Savett

      Parlor Press

      Anderson, South Carolina

      www.parlorpress.com

      Parlor Press LLC, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906

      © 2007 by Cindy Savett

      All rights reserved.

      Printed in the United States of America

      S A N: 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Savett, Cindy, 1953-

       Child in the road / Cindy Savett.

       p. cm. -- (Free verse editions)

       ISBN 978-1-60235-029-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60235-031-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60235-030-4 (adobe ebook)

       I. Title.

       PS3619.A85C47 2007

       811’.6--dc22

       2007037865

      Printed on acid-free paper.

      Cover photograph: “Walking Away Girl” © 2007 by Olga Sapegina. Used by permission.

      Parlor Press, LLC is an independent publisher of scholarly and trade titles in print and multimedia formats. This book is available in paper, cloth and Adobe eBook formats from Parlor Press on the World Wide Web at http://www.parlorpress.com or through online and brick-and-mortar bookstores. For submission information or to find out about Parlor Press publications, write to Parlor Press, 816 Robinson St., West Lafayette, Indiana, 47906, or e-mail [email protected].

      for Rachel

      July 19, 1991 – May 26, 2000

      Contents

       Acknowledgments

       I alibis

       II the sifter

       III alone at the clay table

       IV pure white

       V you

       VI the blue name Rachel

       VII basket of knives

       VIII this step by the door

       IX in the temporary mist of prayer

       X is your question

       Free Verse Editions

       About the Author

      Acknowledgments

      Poems from Child in the Road have appeared in Margie, Heliotrope, Diner, LIT, The Marlboro Review, 26 Magazine, CAB/NET, and tinysides.

      I alibis

      I am sorry for the cradle

      the walk between dreams

      for the distance ignited

      in your eyes

      I count

      seeds from wavering dogwoods

      collect white knives

      from your mouth

      of soft death

      the assault and the still place

      blessings dark from the middle song

      of roiling waters between my teeth

      night ruminations

      of an oak trunk and the overgrown thunder

      a turn of justice in the branches

      small forecast in single flight

      a flash of gold

      of lost water and the wreckage

      my honey breath

      lies in the shelter of your bones

      soiled

      by the sounds of the dead

      that caravan beneath my feet

      I am tethered by alibis of blue air

      volumes of silence catch in my voice

      signet of the forgotten

      and the listed dead

      Motherchild

      I stroke this day

      speak the dance

      of a closed leaf

      jawed by the wind

      incarnate the language

      for heavy

      light

      buried in the white day

      on unwatered

      seed

      mistaking

      your bloodied arms

      for a random touch or dark songs

      for the white of your trill

      and bare stripped stalk

      with nothing but the bone

      and the wind

      wet through your words.

      Begin in the stick time

      I am dust

      faceless

      the wicked sands and the waters that caress the sky

      air

      caught

      in the turning grains

      I am the book of winds

      the red dew

      petals across my chest

      I am the chaste night mountain

      a coiled wind

      exhaling

      shadows of crystalline black

      I am the mouth of Great Blue Breath

      a bare scent

      on parched earth

      the ribbon of rising wing

      kiss of god

      broken

      in your pale

      eyes

      slip into the fire’s mouth

      with bells around your neck

      unknot the ribbons

      silk spun of stilled song

      stems curled

      intent on splitting