Jessica Ramer
Outside the Sanctuary City
Stars: jots penned in moonless ink
My footsteps, tittles in shifting ink.
Alone, bedroll unfurled on sand,
I scribble mad woman’s ink.
Dry loaves scrape my palm-leaf basket.
Waterskins crack, spill brackish ink.
Men suck last marrow from my bones,
Lick up stray bits of spongy ink.
The Virgin whispers “Go in peace,”
Words echoing in memory’s ink.
Feet probe toeholds. Sweat and grit
Meld into canary-colored ink.
Lying in half-sleep, hair like cursive,
I fear shedding ink.
Acolytes’ mythologies persist
On vellum traced with gall-nut ink.
Note of grace: galaxies expand,
Write my life in vanishing ink.
Jessica Ramer is a doctoral student in poetry at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her work has appeared in South 85 and The Keats Letters Project. She was a summer 2017 resident at the Alderworks Alaska Writers & Artists Retreat.
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