You Ask Me to Talk About the Interior by Carolina Ebeid

You Ask Me to Talk About the Interior is an emotionally rich collection, reminiscent of the meditative, beautiful work of Ed Hirsch and W.S. Merwin. These poems make a decadent brocade of a collection. Language is approached directly, but with a reverence and respect given a treasure. The poems are beautiful and thoughtful. Buy here.

“Something Brighter Than Pity”

We learned swans in origami, / hours folding & unfolding // sternums. (It was the year we learned / to swim). We hunted our beach / for brighter hulls. And found // a drowned dog. The branches we poked / at its dorsal blade, touching—whose / & how did it arrive—the curious // there of hereafter. Pale glyph / of dog, washed still, unferal.

“night said”

After a diagnosis, one thing / becomes obvious: a good / patient is a patient patient. / I forget which is the superstition. / Trouble comes / in twos? Or in threes? / Night said: I am an ox / drawing my harrow. / Night said: I am a lacemaker / with a pincushion bouquet. / What were you expecting night to say?

“weilian”

With all the books / I’ve read, my / shadow makes / a heavy thing, / like a desert / mammal having just / eaten a creature / smaller than itself, / that had been eating / a creature even smaller.