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Robin Beth Schaer: Contrition

May 11, 2011 by PBQ

A keening culprit, I came unzipped,
unwed. My penance, to be province, to lie
across a millstone bed, ground to powder,

to be wife again. And you, my conspirator,
my paramour, you strapped your longing

to a sail, sent from town, sent to be lost.
But trilobites cluster beneath your feet
on mountaintop that was once ocean floor

and our crime is a revelation that awaits
the murmur of sonar to be found. Beloved,

off the Chalumna River, a coelacanth was pulled
into a fishing boat. Returned from Cretaceous,
returned ugly and spined, but insisting on itself.

Filed Under: Contributors 81, Issue 81, Poetry, Poetry 81 Tagged With: Contributors 81, Poetry, Poetry 81, Robin Beth Schaer

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