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BARBARA JANE REYES

Having Been Cast, Eve Implores

I want to know the fires your hands bring —
the fractured fates and deepset furious lives,
the weaving of your heartlines, and how perched
upon the finest blade of language, the sonnets
you have breathed into your city of constant sirens.

I want to know the words to your prayer —
my earliest memory, a thirst for your bones.
Tell me what you know of redemption, dear one,
and blossoms of hope unfurling their first petals.
Tell me you awaken holding my name upon your lips.

I want to know the scent of your promise —
an azure calm that rises and falls, your lungs
drawing air, whispering, muse. Lover,
I am your constant siren, your ocean lullaby.
Lover, I am your midnight dragonfly song.



Barbara Jane Reyes was born in Manila, Philippines and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her MFA at San Francisco State University, and is the author of Gravities of Center (Arkipelago, 2003) and Poeta en San Francisco (Tinfish, 2005), for which she received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Asian Pacific American Journal, Chain, Crate, Interlope, New American Writing, Nocturnes Review, North American Review, Parthenon West Review, Tinfish, and Versal. She lives in Oakland, CA. Her author website is www.barbarajanereyes.com.



Boxcar Poetry Review - ISSN 1931-1761