This is a conjuring, if I’m honest.
The way I braid my thoughts of you
into escape ropes, the way I distill
the hours into potions that burn holes
in stone. That I imagine long walks
through your city, the veins of your days
spread under our feet. That I know
and don’t know where you’d lead me.
I weave these spells and catch myself.
I study my face in the mirror’s silver,
cracking my smile for a code. I pretend
my charms have power, that the walls
are crumbling, that there is a way out:
the glowing border of a door between
the everyday and the leap into the dark,
the thorns, the pool of starry ice.
This is almost alchemy. Underneath,
gold spins back to straw. I sit alone
in a familiar kitchen, seeking visions
in a coffee cup already gone cold.
Jacqueline West’s poetry has appeared in Mythic Delirium, Strange Horizons, Liminality, Enchanted Living, and Star*Line. Her first full-length collection, Candle and Pins: Poems on Superstitions, was released in 2018 (Hiraeth Publishing). She is also the author of the NYT-bestselling middle grade series The Books of Elsewhere, the YA horror novel Last Things, and several other award-winning books for young readers. A three-time nominee for both the Rhysling Award and the Pushcart Prize, Jacqueline lives with her family in Red Wing, Minnesota. Find her at jacquelinewest.com or on IG at jacqueline.west.writes.
photo by Annie Spratt (via unsplash)
Crow & Cross Keys 