Three Poems by Jenny Sadre-Orafai

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FORECASTING

Gulps of grey crown a sky.
On the other side
we are safe, away with
crickets who moan
without break. Seeing
a storm come
for someone and not say
is pulling a ladder away,
readying your ears
for the blast.

YOU WILL MEET A MAN

I stood on him
a well of dirt
that mends

and breathed in
his boyhood
what's left of air

in altitude

I could recite
every line on his hand
behind his ears

Should I tell it

we will live
against the knife
your mother

a girl
watched sharpen
wane and then

a flat line

MARKERS

First coyote
First big rock
First pink sky
First bruise
First fork
First well water
First cricket
First spell
First fast
First shadow
First villain
First fire
First no

...

Jenny Sadre-Orafai is the author of Paper, Cotton, Leather and four chapbooks. Recent poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Cream City Review, Ninth Letter, Tammy, and Linebreak. Her prose has appeared in The Rumpus, Los Angeles Review, The Toast, and South Loop Review. She is co-founding editor of Josephine Quarterly, a VIDA counter, and an Associate Professor of English at Kennesaw State University.