Not So When Beneath It
The landscape of a face to the hand
is a short ridge over an unstable
and serrated crater; to the eye,
a twin pair of lakes, sometimes clear,
often muddy. Below, the slim field
of a single tulip ripples its petals.
The landscape of a face to the heart
is a moon haunting with its retreats
and returns, a wedge in one’s deep
sleep like a still-lit lamp; to memory,
a sun falling into twilight, defined
as the horizon, not so when beneath it.
M. Nasorri Pavone’s poetry has appeared in River Styx, Sycamore Review, New Letters, The Cortland Review, Innisfree, b o d y, Rhino, DMQ Review, I-70 Review, The Citron Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Rise Up Review, and others. She’s been anthologized in Beyond the Lyric Moment (Tebot Bach, 2014), and has been nominated for Best of the Net and twice for a Pushcart Prize.