Rouen, France
Once we were women Now we are stained
windowpanes crimson-blood, blue-fire
We flash in the morning sun Come
let’s descend Faire la bise like friends
Kiss one cheek then turn the other
I’ll carry your basket to the marché
gather berries and greens Camembert and cider
We’ll talk of God and grief I burn with your loss
Before my time after yours
the black shade was drawn tumors spots pus
Even a cat buried alive in the walls could not stop the onslaught
Listen to the crunch of bones beneath our feet
O Plague! O War! O Torment of Innocents!
In this flesh I am not strong enough
to survive more rising smoke Are you?
–
Kyle Potvin’s chapbook, Sound Travels on Water, won the Jean Pedrick Chapbook Award. She is a two-time finalist for the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award. Her poems have appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, Crab Creek Review, Tar River Poetry, The New York Times, and others. Kyle lives in New Hampshire.