ISSUE TWELVE | SPRING 2019
—After Marie Howe
Lake reflects sky
sky reflects the
razzle-dazzle of blue
and blue Somewhere between
the warp
of land and air there’s
your body
and someone else beside it
Birds come and go—
up and down forward then back
Blue jays like broken sky crows
like drips of night
songbirds howling
into the oblivious myth or mirth it is
Yellow jackets
too swirl off somewhere then away farther
cicadas sing: Tu me manque, tu me manque
aussi you are missing from me
It is
theatrical
this loss this losing
We fall
into tragedy
goat-song
meaning
has gotten lost along our way
I pale in the face
You are un reachable
I hold a dark lake in my hand I wait
for light to seethe across the surface
Where are you The wind is sky beginning
I can see it form for miles
Do you feel it
The way it moves around you then
on
Infinitesimal the gesture the breeze
the variation in blue
What is the difference
between I call to you and
I call you The cicadas
are tiring fall rain on the horizon
something
is broken This breaking
happens once
then happens all the time
S. Yarberry is a trans poet and writer. Their poetry has appeared in, or is forthcoming in, Tin House, Indiana Review, The Offing, Berkeley Poetry Review, jubilat, The Washington Post's The Lily Magazine, Notre Dame Review, miscellaneous zines, among others. Their other writings can be found in Bomb Magazine and Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly. S. holds the Junior Teaching Fellowship in Poetry at Washington University in St. Louis and serves as the Poetry Editor of The Spectacle.
DO YOU LOVE NAT. BRUT?
If you enjoy Nat. Brut and consider yourself a reader of the magazine, please consider donating to us! We are a fledgling non-profit on a shoe-string budget, and our staff is 100% volunteer (all of us!). Every dollar you give goes directly back into the operations of the magazine. Consider giving today!