in sky so nameless                                            susannah lodge-rigal

​you scale up & up the river
birch—small & asking—remember 
your feet & panic—below 
I’m singing honey
from the ground—honey 
come down You come down 
crying—the whole country             side widening again 
into itself—the meanwhiles go awful blooming--
      we move  
      toward            the pecking         birds—watch them   lift & take 
      a shape           in sky so              nameless 
      no one            calls it                dancing—if              this senseless ever
      folds into        form                  I couldn’t call it         mercy—on days like this 
            I listen                                                                  —eyes shut—                  
            for you singing—quiet        low: many days           you have 
            lingered                             around                       my cabin door 

leaves show silver & everyone shifts    susannah lodge-rigal

   ​toward cover—looks up & worries small
 
Riverboats shrink themselves away   
   to dock & wait out
 
I wonder same as anyone when the pour
   will come & if soon I’ll attend   
 
again the blue arounding     Nearer to me
   you soundless say that which anchors in
 
you anchors elsewhere & awhile now
 
   The minute rounds     The soon sky
 empties out     slow blooming     I borrow
 
   your imagination—elsewhere & awhile now undoing skies us
 
   whether cover or without      In staying
I’ll keep asking will this hold or weather:
 
    leaves, pour, blooming, cover,
boat, soundless, staying, will--

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Susannah Lodge-Rigal is an MFA candidate at Colorado State University, where she teaches composition and serves as an associate editor for the Center for Literary Publishing. Her work as appeared in Colorado Review, Timber, Sycamore Review, and elsewhere.