Illustration by Sue Babcock
You thought you fell beyond
the pale of sharp-edged
sun-washed color
into sepia’s vale,
weighted, down a well
of mud-stained dolor,
struck by muffled knell,
funereal bells that wring
the sound of sorrows
from every aching cell,
there compelled on end to dwell
in all your long tomorrows.
And in a turn, who could tell
that voice or light
would pierce the veil,
let loose the brackish narrows
in surging swells
to wash you up,
now breathing hard,
on far and shining shallows.
BIO: Jamie Elliott Keith lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, and works as a community volunteer. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in such journals as Rust + Moth, The James Dickey Review, The Cape Rock, San Pedro River Review, and Third Wednesday. Her first chapbook, Past the Edge of Blue (2017), was published by Iris Press.