{"id":9434,"date":"2024-05-31T16:01:44","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T16:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=9434"},"modified":"2024-10-08T15:54:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T15:54:07","slug":"annies-moth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/31\/annies-moth\/","title":{"rendered":"Annie’s Moth"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Photo by Basil James on Unsplash, Illustration by Sarah Clark<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Annie'S Moth<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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By Jen Grace Stewart<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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If you will, you can become all flame.
<\/em>Abba Joseph, Sayings of the Desert Fathers<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Spirit I was, I thought
this meant the heart<\/p>

could be a burning bush
consuming, not consumed<\/p>

by God. God\u2019s luminous
atomic frisson, a perpetual<\/p>

exstasis, the kind beyond
heat and light, beyond still waters,<\/p>

beyond green. To red-rocked
places where a body\u2019s forged<\/p>

into a tong, my slender bones
by brilliance singed. And how,<\/p>

when I was a girl, a poet
showed me a moth\u2019s life<\/p>

extinguishing in flame, its body
wickt with wax that had<\/p>

ensnared it. How it irradiated
night and threw its shadow<\/p>

in the looming trees. How holy
a young girl can be in her desire<\/p>

for vanishing, to shape shadows
against walls by way of her<\/p>

consumption, believe such
dying is the price of making<\/p>

even what can\u2019t stay.<\/p>

Spirit I was, I thought the desert
fathers knew a way I couldn\u2019t know<\/p>

into becoming. But first the moth\u2019s
a worm, and then a shroud.<\/p>

Suffer the little silkworm come<\/em>.
The fire is all your longings lit.<\/p>

Before your slender skein can lift,
your shed skin\u2019s wound and rent.<\/p>

You can\u2019t keep yourself apart.
A body\u2019s every urge a filament<\/p>

between bright wings and iridescent dust,
unfurled in conflagration, copulation,<\/p>

mess. Your wonted flesh a more accessible
transcendence. And every lip<\/p>

against your temple,
a flame\u2019s devouring lick \u2013<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Jen Grace Stewart<\/strong> is the author of\u00a0Madonna, Complex<\/em>\u00a0(Cascade Books 2020),\u00a0Latch<\/em>\u00a0(River Glass Books 2019), and\u00a0Visitations<\/em>\u00a0(Finishing Line Press 2015). Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in\u00a0Denver Quarterly,<\/em>\u00a0North American Review,<\/em>\u00a0Colorado Review,\u00a0<\/em>and elsewhere. A native of Colorado, she teaches writing at the University of Colorado, Boulder.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Annie’s Moth” by Jen Grace Stewart 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