wildscape. literary journal

Ode to Poets
by Annie Bolger

I.

There is a room and a room and a room and a room
in my head. I am an anxious host; please come in,
take a pen, see if you can tell which one I used to sign

my ketubah. Press the inkweight of your name into the guestbook.
Come into my saltbrine parlor; have you ever craved
the sea? I hope the melancholy, the stormweathered

flooring, speaks to the wanderer in you. Next, we’ll pass through
the word chain reaction hall (Nike – Athena Nike – Pallas Athena –
Palimpsest – Sesquicentennial). You, too, know the marble ricochet

of an idea that can’t die, the kindling crackle of paradox. 
Here is the sacred hearth. Sit in the plush armchair:
even the Vestal Virgins were allowed

to retire. I will take the fire tongs from here.

II.

                                                     What a blessing to be known!
To have a self released on a page
like a biology class diagram, flesh
to myosin to calcium. To convey in a way that defies
summary, to make undeniable
the billion proofs of a soul – irreplaceable,
and strange, and never seen before,
and never seen again.

about the author // Annie Bolger