read about the Aeolian Harp Series submissions below
Leo
It was a time when winter leaned hard
into spring and the coats of dogs
and horses grew soft and thick, and women
savored the weight of woolen skirts upon layers
of petticoats, at least imagination tells me this
was how it was when a sullen and bearded Leo
took up his pen once more, having spent his youth
on war and peace with Sonya--determined to pass
The balance of his life planning the ruin of a woman
he once knew whose love had cut him through. Like me,
Tolstoy lifted lines and scenes from his own life, I imagine,
"Respect was invented to cover the empty place where
love should be," Sonya said, closing the door upon him,
their lives together. A Russian winter cold, dark, and bottom-
less is a kind of nontime in which a writer might be lost
without her own inventiveness, or sacrifice, or dreams
about what lovers do when they're alone.
This poem is a part of a folio of poetry, "Excavation," which appeared in Aeolian Harp Series Six and was selected by guest editor Angela Narciso Torres along with ten other poets' work.
The submission period for Aeolian Harp Eight, guest-edited by Gloria Mindock, closes 2-28-2022.
Glass Lyre Press
Glass Lyre Press
