Julie Lee, “05” from A Dream of Jade
bathroom stall, Pennsylvania Turnpike travel station near the Allegheny River
original:
ON EVERY WINTER POND I FIND HER
GOD EVERY INSTANT I FIND HER
GOD A GREEN QUEEN KNEELS WEEPING I[?] FIND HER
WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN EVERYWHERE I FIND HER
[?]VE KILLED HER GOD COALS AND ASH
On every winter pond, I find her
god. Every instant I find her
god, a green queen kneels, weeping ice. Find her
weeping for her children. Everywhere I find her,
they’ve killed her god: coals and ash.
*
On every winter pond, I find her.
God, every instant I find her,
God, a green queen kneels weeping. I’ll find her
weeping, for her children (everywhere I find her),
have killed her, God: coals and ash.
*
On every winter pond, I find Her:
God. Every instant I find her,
God (a green queen) kneels. Weeping, I’ll find Her
weeping for Her children everywhere. I find Her.
We’ve killed Her: God-coals and ash.
Caleb A.P. Parker is a writer, cartoonist, and musician from the industrialized Texas Gulf Coast. He is currently an MFA student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he’s the Martha Meier Renk Distinguished Graduate Fellow in Poetry and a volunteer with the Wisconsin Prison Humanities Project. He has poems forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Colorado Review, and elsewhere.