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Gregg Weatherby
Graham Burchell
Jennifer Van Orman
Chris Crittenden
F.J. Bergmann
Cami Park
Nathan Leslie
Michael Estabrook
Rich Murphy
Marge Piercy
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Ally Hanging
Though it's been years since they found her
hanging in the Bangor woods,
her throat closed
like the white neck of a lily,
I suppose
I am making her
hang still,
a weighted plumb line
asking to be cut,
as though I need her there,
a beam holding up
the heart of the house.
I am still
asking her to stay there,
the noose bisecting her,
holding
things I have lost
and keep losing.
Prayer
My grandmother went to morning mass
everyday for over 80 years,
from kitchen to wine cup,
her hands from fist to fold
from carve to clasp.
She'd kneel as if hope was
something someone could Bible in
and make law, write down and keep whole,
lock up and make fruit.
Mortar and pestling beads
between her fingers, as if worry
could make copper,
as if sin could make meal,
could make meat.
Jennifer Van Orman is a 2007 MFA graduate of the Stonecoast Creative Writing Program. Though she has been writing for many years, these poems are her first to be published. She does not have a website, but you can read her blog at http://blog.myspace.com/akaivantheterrible. She lives in Portland, Maine, from where she sends you many warm regards.
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