Orange
Morning
in the palm of my hand.
I am
peeling an orange for breakfast.
They grow a polished armor
making a fist,
cupping water
sweeter than honey from the rock.
Under the cloche
of
lamp-bright rind
between nakedness and nothing
a neon heart flickers.
Cento Sources: Billy Collins, Ntozake Shang, Ava Schicke, Greg Kosmicki, Robert Morgan, Naomi Shihab Nye, Eileen Myles, Christina Rossetti, Vi Kni Nao, Jana Prikryl, Roisin Kelly, Simone Muench, Bob Lucky
Patrice Boyer Claeys is the author of The Machinery of Grace (2020) and Lovely Daughter of the Shattering (2019). Recent work has appeared in The Inflectionist Review, Zone 3, Glassworks Magazine, and Aeolian Harp Anthology 5. She lives in Chicago with her husband and has two grown daughters. www.patriceboyerclaeys.com
See more of her work in 8.4 and 8.4