• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Painted Bride Quarterly

  • About
    • About PBQ
    • People
  • Issues
    • Current Issue
    • Past Issues
    • Print Annuals
  • Podcast
    • Latest Podcast
    • All Podcasts
  • News & Events
  • Submit
  • Shop
  • Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Prose
  • Contributors
  • Current Issue

Ann DeVilbiss: Spell to Cultivate Gentleness

December 27, 2019 by PBQ Leave a Comment

Spell to Cultivate Gentleness

Cull the petals
from this year’s roses,
until they rest in your palm,
a flock of yellow lambs.

Become quiet as
the slip of blue
trailing the skink as he runs
to a calmer scrap of sun.

Borrow the umber
from the wheat and
gild the barbed stalking
of wild thorns.

Mellow what is bitter,
careful as a honey bee
who knows death
inside the sting.

When your blister-mouthed
daughter comes to you
seeking water,
give her your every drop.

Think of milk
and let it soothe you
like the white silk that waves
once the war is over.

Filed Under: Issue 99, Poetry, Poetry 99

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent News & Events

PBQ March Slam Session!

PBQ @ the Pen & Pencil!

PBQ Slam Session!

Slam Session with PBQ!

PBQ @ Poetry Tent!

© 2020 Painted Bride Quarterly. Contact PBQ: info@pbqmag.org