Palm
You keep turning up in my dreams
like a penny, worth less than the old,
but shinier. I am glad to hold you
in my warm hand and
turn you face up, stare into your
eyes looking at me. Hello, I say,
and you say it back to me, like the gypsy
in the song
who disappears at the end.
I vow never to spend you
even in this
unrequited bliss field
with all the shades drawn down.
_________________________________
From Spell by Ann Lauterbach. Used with permission of Penguin Books. Copyright 2018 by Ann Lauterbach.
Ann Lauterbach
Ann Lauterbach was born and grew up in New York City. She has been since 1992 co-chair of writing in the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, where she is also Ruth and David Schwab II Professor of Languages and Literature. Among the recognitions of her work are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (1986) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (1993). She is the author of nine previous collections of poetry, as well as three collections of prose, including The Night Sky: Writings on the Poetics of Experience. She lives in Germantown, New York.
