To stress
Jennifer LeBlanc
An erasure of Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”
Had we
no crime
We would
love
by the
tide
would complain
before the flood,
refuse
conversion .
love should grow
Vaster empires
go to praise
eyes
adore each
rest;
at least
the last age should
deserve this ,
No lower rate.
But I always
hurry ;
And all
eternity
no more found;
No marble vault sound
My song
long-preserved
turn to
ashes
a fine
embrace.
Now the
morning
transpires
with instant fires,
let us
prey,
Rather devour
Than languish
all
Our sweetness
And our pleasures
Through life:
though we cannot make our sun
yet we will run.
Jennifer LeBlanc earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University. Her first full-length book, Descent, was published by Finishing Line Press (2020) and was named a Distinguished Favorite in Poetry (2021) by the Independent Press Award. Individual poems have been published or are forthcoming in journals such as Consequence, Solstice, Nixes Mate Review, San Pedro River Review, and The Main Street Rag. Jennifer is a poetry reader for Kitchen Table Quarterly. She was nominated for a 2013 Pushcart Prize and works in the English Department at Tufts University.