The Gate
After
Chryssa, “The Gates to Times Square, 1966” (exhibited at The Menil 2023)
The alphabet starts with a letter
I used to know how to say it
My mother taught me long words
Like illumination, boron and sodder
She stuffed papers in my backpack
I crumpled them, forgot
They were there until one day
An artist reminded me
The first letter of the alphabet is A
A reminder that time is running out
That steel squares have sharp edges
That my mother can still speak
Marshall Woodward is pursuing his MFA at the University of Houston where he is an Inprint Fellow, a Mitchell Fellow for interdisciplinary art, and an assistant poetry editor for Gulf Coast. He is co-director of Space City Medievalism, a project eliciting creative responses to medieval poetry supported by a Medieval Academy of America Centennial grants. He is currently working on a manuscript about objects of empire and the myth-making of medieval America. His recent poetry appears in Fence and Hot Pink, as well as a recent chapbook LAVA! from Bottlecap Press. These three poems were written while teaching students at The Cy Twombly Gallery.
