Rule

Brendan Constantine
| poetry

 

for Wanda Coleman

 

If you break enough
lines, eventually
you have something
that’ll kindle & catch
like a tar paper shack
or a wedding dress.
A long gone woman
once took a stone to
all her words until
her tongue flared
like a map of war.
A library stands
where she’s buried
& people leave gifts
in the parking lot—
rock, paper, scissors.

 

Brendan Constantine is a poet based in Los Angeles. His most recent collections are Birthday Girl with Possum (Write Bloody Publishing) and Calamity Joe (Red Hen Press). He teaches poetry at the Windward School.

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