In and Out of Fever
for Katie
Let me kiss you as you tell me your dreams
in any language you choose.
I would believe you if you said you were afraid
of every sheep-clothed beast,
or any golden icon painting.
I crucified desire on a cross of obedience.
The chapel bell chimes too,
and dazzled masses will forsake pity.
I saw more of Spring,
caught a bee in my mouth.
I didn’t open my mouth and now look:
I stepped out of the elevator
and let the old tower fall,
somewhere crushed to powder,
blowing away in a shaft of sun.
Shimmer in the forest
can loosen a prayer from me.
Who am I here on a sabbath day?—
a child at the prow of the world.
*A cento of lines from Katherine E. Schneider’s poetry collection, Breaking the Fever.
Nicole Caruso Garcia (she/her) is the author of OXBLOOD (Able Muse Press), which received the International Book Award for narrative poetry. Her work appears in Crab Orchard Review, Light, Mezzo Cammin, ONE ART, Plume, Rattle, RHINO, and elsewhere. Her poetry has received the Willow Review Award, won a 2021 Best New Poets honor, and has been nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She is an associate poetry editor at Able Muse and served as an executive board member at the annual conference, Poetry by the Sea. Visit her at nicolecarusogarcia.com.
The Marbled Sigh 