Arctangent
Some other time, another hour,
will you ache where your inshore
thread the argyle of all that
unseen? In that space of hollow
where glacier might come and
feather you in ice, gentling only
when the marrow-you give flinch
to the sea, you’ll have a talk
between the tree and your hands,
as if the fingers that cup the tiny
snails could shape the stays and
the buoys. Imagine this, your
sway of Crape myrtle patterned
long in the moonlight, and there
was nothing but a dawn to starve,
you will need to lullaby riddling
the night, shivering as shadows
snaked up your arctangent back.
Lana Bella is the fourth Featured Woman Writer this October. A three-time Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net & Bettering American Poetry nominee, she is an author of three chapbooks, Under My Dark (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2016), Adagio (Finishing Line Press, 2016), and Dear Suki: Letters (Platypus 2412 Mini Chapbook Series, 2016). She has poetry and fiction featured with over 400 journals, including Acentos Review, Comstock Review, Expound, Ilanot Review, Notre Dame Review, Rogue Agent, and Word/For Word. Her work is set to appear in Aeolian Harp Anthology, Volume 3. Lana resides in the US and the coastal town of Nha Trang, Vietnam, where she is a mom of two far-too-clever-frolicsome imps.
