ISSUE 43
May 2009

Emmy Roulette

 

Emmy Roulette is an M.F.A. candidate at Kent State University. She has had poems published in various journals and is at work on a novel.

Long    

"There is no other immortality:
in the cold spring, the purple violets open."

         —Louise Glück, "Hyacinth"


May spoke
first, and when

the dog barked,
she went—

one shoe
in her hand,

one shoe
on her foot.

The ground squished.
The dead groaned.

As usual,
only a hint of moon

shown in the puddle . . .
And so,

with mud between
her toes, she

arrives home,
half sad/half relieved;

and
as the people pass

on the sidewalk
below, she takes

her place (though
not always at

the window), her
face unwrapping—

her face,
a delicate assembly of light.

 

 

Emmy Roulette: Poetry
Copyright ©2009 The Cortland Review Issue 43The Cortland Review