Already the Heart

The spinal cord blossoms
like bright, bruised magnolia
into the brainstem.
         And already the heart
in its depth — who could assail it?
Bathed in my voice, all branching
and dreaming. The flowering
and fading — said the poet —
come to us both at once.
Here is your best self,
and the least, two sparrows
alight in the one tree
of your body.

A. V. Christie
The Housing
2004 Robert McGovern Publication Prize
The Ashland Poetry Press

Copyright © 2004 by A. V. Christie.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.

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