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YOUR CART

Laura Villareal

My Year of Naming

I want to call them what they are:
 
               mesquite bean               cucumber beetle            coyote melon
 
                              crabgrass           fall asters                     fire ants                  mistflower
                                              yarrow                      henbit                 garlic chives
                catmint                          beebalm                        lantana
 
& know the tenderness of attention. I revolve
around bad news like a satellite.
 
The orbit of collective grief, the pull of a stone
in my throat.
 
I ground myself
as I tend tomato blossoms. I mimic the bee
with the flick of my finger on each yellow star.
 
I can be obsessive
in my worry. In the way I love,
 
I can’t help but notice
any shadow or sun beam.
 
Beloveds, can you hear me
practicing your names?

Picture

Laura Villareal is the author of Girl's Guide to Leaving (University of Wisconsin Press, 2022) and the chapbook The Cartography of Sleep (Nostrovia!, 2018). She has received fellowships from the Stadler Center for Poetry & Literary Arts and National Book Critics Circle. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, American Poetry Review, Waxwing, AGNI, and elsewhere
Art: Yuno Shiota, 『無題』 ​Mudai  Untitled, 286 cm × 205 cm, acrylic and oil pastel on paper, 3.14.15
  
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