4 November 2005 | Vol. 5, No. 3

Rosa VII: First, Petals

by JNANA HODSON

to think a reverse template

could redeem some missing

mirror image as banal as pornography

when I needed a compost pile

                        *

the ex-boxer's technique to find

a subject and keep hitting, twenty,

thirty times. Once or twice never enough

"I've seen too many dead causes

                        get up, walk away"

                        *

absolute mathematics released

the crush so long into your own

awakening Yellow Springs

New Rambler—Purdue breakdown

                        *

and so taboo. You knew

I never could have supported us,

much less a child

as long as the clasp held

you would speak to me

keeping to yourself