Bucket of stars drawn up from the well;
bucket of moonlight for spirits to drink.
The shoes made of bark, of leather and rope.
The coat that no animal would wear
The road to be followed that followed us.
The ship on the ocean of hunger and sweat.
Someone was listening in the shadows.
Someone was giving birth to a child.
Someone forever was digging a grave
in the mud and ashes; small fires burned.
There was a key at someone’s throat, a knife
in the boot. Something clawed in the walls.
Someone was washing his young bride’s
golden hair in the alley behind the shack.
Someone was swimming the river of smoke.
Someone was reading the cards for a sign.
This was our fortune: a necklace of soot.
Someone was singing to sweep out the law.
Someone was putting a handful of earth
into her mouth not to speak what she knew.
Cecilia Woloch is a U.S.-born poet, writer, teacher, and performer based in Los Angeles. Her honors include fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, CEC/ArtsLink International and the Center for International Theatre Development; her work has also received a Pushcart Prize and been included in the Best American Poetry Series and in numerous anthologies. She has published six collections of poems and a novel, as well as essays and reviews. She is the founding director of Summer Poetry in Idyllwild, The Istanbul Poetry Workshop and The Paris Poetry Workshop. She has also served on the creative writing faculties of The University of Southern California, Georgia College & State University, Western Connecticut State University MFA Program in Writing and The New England College MFA Program in Poetry.