Issue Thirty-Three - Winter 2019

Paid Up

By Jayne Marek

Close your eyes.
You have already paid
for this soft towel
with four bright colors
smooth against your cheek.
It is one long filament
woven by metal blades
and you are reminded
of past days, bands
of rain or harsh sun
that tightened
their spools across you
year after year.
A long weaving
it was, and it
belongs to you—
this spring pink
and chartreuse,
this fighting orange
and threatful red—
like the blooms open
in the yard. You know them all
though your eyes are shut
for the moment
against loops of cotton
that link, one into one,
to make a whole
wrap that fits you surely,
every curve,
every bone.

Copyright Marek 2019

Jayne Marek ’s poetry and art photos appear most recently in The Cortland Review, Shantih, Gulf Stream, Raven Chronicles, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Amsterdam Review, About Place Journal, Bombay Gin, Sin Fronteras, and Notre Dame Review. She has provided color cover art for several journals and for her two full-length poetry books—In and Out of Rough Water (Kelsay Books, 2017) and The Tree Surgeon Dreams of Bowling (Finishing Line, 2018). Twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, she also was a finalist for the David Martinson–Meadowhawk Prize, the Ex Ophidia Poetry Book Prize, and the Ryan R. Gibbs Photography Contest.

All work by