Emma DePanise

AWP Intro Journal Awards Winner


This Motion, These Whispers

Washington Square Park

 

Potter's field to parade ground—Sure, people

            visit, dip their feet, dance

 

                        on 20,000 bodies under. This weedy-wet

                                    shower shoots, blooms, from stone

 

and bone, femurs reaching out

            for femur. C'mon, take a swim, throw

 

                                    it in, won't you? We are always turning

                                                to the dead to make us. See how,

 

            in this yellow-light, the feverish air twists

                        and balls and glimmers?