{"id":2827,"date":"2021-12-27T11:20:23","date_gmt":"2021-12-27T19:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=2827"},"modified":"2024-11-27T08:46:58","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T16:46:58","slug":"two-poems-by-john-sibley-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/two-poems-by-john-sibley-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMy Heart is in the Mouth of Another Heart\u201d and \u201cSuture\u201d by John Sibley Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"84-cover-for-web-lower-res-1\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Found in\u00a0Willow Springs 84<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Author Profile<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\n\n

\u201cMy Heart is in the Mouth of Another Heart\u201d and \u201cSuture\u201d by John Sibley Williams<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My Heart is in the Mouth of Another Heart*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

May the deer navigate              this field of white crosses<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        & tiny windless flags<\/p>\n\n\n\n

as if no one buried beneath has ever taken from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

May we join the mice nesting               in our bones<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like rotten logs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

& raise our children safely shadowed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                  in grief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

May the children we’ve chosen for sacrifice climb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

so high in these elms the light            that rarely reaches us<\/p>\n\n\n\n

trembles at their coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trembles & comes to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someday the need to sing will become the song<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& the song grow into another need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not for blood this time. Not oil. Otherness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the burning crosses, churches, refineries at dusk, a bridge that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

shouldn’t be there. May we say we see it through the smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like forgiveness. All this impossible forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May the dead believe us when we say it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suture<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until it no longer held,           the bridge was eternal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

& even after its dissolution<\/p>\n\n\n\n

into the concept of a bridge,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

into stories handed down generations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of how once there was a way<\/p>\n\n\n\n

across,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

we say we can taste the rust<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& hear<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

{when the river shuts up for a night)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the feet of children<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(who must be long dead<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by now)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

stampeding barefoot across it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They sound like matches dropped in water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They sound like parables<\/p>\n\n\n\n

told so often we confuse them<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the water is clear enough to see the bottom,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we say we can see the bottom. We fish it for ruin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& come up empty-handed. Tonight<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the whole town is coming together (again) to discuss<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

rebuilding a bridge no one remembers having ever been there<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(but must have, once,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

if we’re to call the other side<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

a shore).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Line from Michael Springs’ “rock wall”<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":25234,"featured_media":1904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2827"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37148,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2827\/revisions\/37148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}