Abi Pollokoff

& today a hull to hold on to

& let the body slip out of itself
into something tidy let the body
silk its way into hinge & delay
hinge & hinge into some
thick threads of lilies

into the haunting lull of birches &
their expectancies the way air
bowhinged wrists around their
bodies the way their bodies
hinged bow to the shoulder & the
wrist

the way their bodies warp into air
like an infant’s fist around an
index : tender & firm &
expectant

& when the air splinters with
sound with breath with the snap
of some ordinary tuesday what
then becomes of the body & its
lilies : what then becomes

of the birchbow the splinter & the
splintered lily : the artery & the
pact the wrist & its hinge the
tidings untidy the grip

gripping the lull lulling into
airtender breaths & eddies

the lessening into splitself & song
: here’s after here’s what’s after
here’s what it’s like to be after
to be

after something lost & found its
skin again : to have something to
shiver in : to be the lily lifted at
the wrist : the birch

unhinging from breathsong : to
unthread &

stretched & expectant
              to let the lilies linger

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Abi Pollokoff is a Seattle-based writer and book artist with work forthcoming or found in The Seventh Wave, EcoTheo, Denver Quarterly, Poetry Northwest and Black Warrior Review, among others. She is a 2021 Jack Straw Writers Fellow, and she has also held fellowships or residencies from the Hugo House, the Seattle Review of Books and The Alice. Currently, Abi is the events manager for Open Books: A Poem Emporium and the managing editor for Poetry Northwest Editions, along with many other hats. She received her MFA from the University of Washington. Find her at abipollokoff.com.