By: Jessica Goodfellow

 

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Autumn Cento

The south wind discovers a loose thread
assembled to the blueprints of frost.
Rain breaks and falls like the mismatched
clues to the originating mind.                                    

In a subatomic hum,
the air has found something of itself to regret.                       
The night sparrow finally inhaled its own sound. What else                           
lies caged beneath   
equinoxes, solstices, & all things that      
might not mean loss?         

Sources: Connie Wanek, John Lindgren, Emma Howell, Craig Morgan Teicher, Kate Gleason, Jill Alexander Essbaum, Malinda Markham, Ann Howells, Felicia Zamora, Dana Levin  

 

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Losing My Religion Cento

I am a figure in a logic problem.
Look at the belief I can’t live by, how it didn’t follow
the wind in prisms. White holds light in a suspended state, unleashing it later,   
shattering light. I had to grit my teeth against its brilliance,
the way Houdini studied a box.
Angels don’t need acceleration.
What’s sacred is singular:
one length of forgiveness.

Sources: Nan Cohen, Katie Ford, Cole Swensen, Felecia Caton Garcia, Sharon Olds, Minati Singh, Adrienne Rich, Jennifer Moss

 

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Jessica Goodfellow’s books are Whiteout (University of Alaska Press, 2017), Mendeleev’s Mandala (2015) and The Insomniac’s Weather Report (2014). She’s had poems in Verse Daily, Motionpoems, and Best American Poetry 2018. In 2016 she was a writer-in-residence at Denali National Park and Preserve. Jessica lives in Japan.