christening | midnight | all saints’

Back to Issue 12

when I fever I fever a boy
blond in the corner of the door
holding a robe & lit by nothing
I fever the voice of a woman
over him naming
a list of hallow names
I fever the names
& the boy holds a robe I fever
the light until light my window
I fever the voice of a woman
my name almost my name
sweat water drench my brow

 

when I fever I fever a boy
blood in a corridor
folds of a robe & tilted humming
I fever the voice of a woman
holding him naming
listen hollow names
I fever the names
& a man folds the robe I fever
the lightning twilight a widow
I fever the voice of a woman
my name most my name
sweetwater drenching my brow

 

and I fever I fever a voice a woman siltwater boy of names of
robes I fever light & coronet the sweat & listen names become
my name hollowed name hallowed name howled   their christen
robes the wind & litanies the brow       my folded brow

   O I fever my name
most of all my name
   my name drenched
   my bellowed brow

 

By Rebecca Pickard


Rebecca Pickard is a writer and researcher living in Lynchburg, Virginia. Her work has previously appeared in LAMP Magazine and the Sigma Tau Delta Rectangle.