Cherry Pickman
How to Rise Up like New Bread

 

It is hard         not to be impatient

at our slowness and how much

            breath             we require sometimes more

than a lung’s space     when I was sick

            I looked most like myself      

it’s surprising             you’d think the manatee would

clot      the canal is admitting boats almost

            indiscriminately the slow slur

of bilge water pulled into a frenzied

smoothness     what you have seen mysteriously

            rise and redouble        and fold under

your own hands has come to take

            your place       cover it well

and let stay tranquil

 

 

 

 
Found In Volume 46, No. 01
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Cherry Pickman
About the Author

Cherry Pickman is the author of Theory of Tides, which was selected by Lucia Perillo for the Poetry Society of America’s New York Chapbook Fellowship. Her work has appeared in 32 PoemsBoston Review, and Indiana Review, among others. She lives in Miami, Florida.