Pele Knits a Scarf for Poli’ahu

Elizabeth Vignali

 

The oakum is difficult to work with
Salt-stiffened and fibrous with rancor

Your snow has stolen my fingertips

I sing to drown out the raging wind
Vowels ride away on your white plurals 

The up of yours and the down of mine 

Forests have grown over
The meadows of me and you

Fires burn out as fires will
And even so 

Remember the nights of fire picked over?
We still look for remnants in the quiet ash 

 

Elizabeth Vignali is an optician and writer in the Pacific Northwest, where she coproduces the Bellingham Kitchen Sessions reading series. She is the author of Object Permanence (Finishing Line Press, 2014). Her poems have appeared in various publications, including Willow Springs, Cincinnati Review, The American Journal of Poetry, Tinderbox, The Literary Review, and Natural Bridge.

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