G-NT3806KSJP

to try tracing it now is a mistake


   


eclipsed      he comes through or
out of a wall where there wasn't
a door     how pleasantly he does
not insist    as you are preparing
a winter of candles and furs     does
not call out to you     (if you did
permit him)      does call the mosses
what they are     does have need
for pasture     wind     a kept sparrow
     your bed is the body of doves
and he is permitted to swaddle
     permitted to lie     all visions
are subject to color     he knows
the growing acreage      the nape
of the neck     how these are
worn near flames      how these
flicker    he scatters straw     bits
of hair     how these flicker  
as outlines






Mackenzie Kozak is a poet and therapist living in Asheville, North Carolina. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in American Poetry Journal, Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, DIAGRAM, Poetry Northwest, Sixth Finch, and elsewhere. Mackenzie serves as an associate editor at Orison Books and Asheville Poetry Review. Her manuscript, in place of a mouth & far-flung, was a finalist for the National Poetry Series. Find her online at mackenziekozak.com