woman song (as sung to clouds)

woman song (as sung to clouds)
By Jennifer Pons

what becomes clear through re-entry of atmosphere
through cumulus hovering between tiny earth
and deities is the simplicity of distance 

the atmosphere breaking    I mean    breaking
bones perhaps
like those in a hand
also glass and sometimes this can settle
ideas about enemy and mother or about
breaking mothers in half
like sticks and throwing one part of stick 

into a pile of junk
while the car is moving fast 

then burning the other part in an urn 

pile and urn are places to leave the heart too 

a dead one (heart) may seem better at times
but I swear there is more to this than cumulus
and breaking 

in heart there is also
woman and enemy in atmosphere where stars
little and bright
scatter through between tiny earth and distant deities 
                                    there are enemies that burn sticks
and hearts on piles of junk
 
and all around women drive in cars
hoping to run over snakes 

moving in the direction of stars
illuminating glass bumps in the road
such that the cars swerve onto similar gravel everywhere
near a junkyard of dead bones and broken statues 

all around snakes sneaking through breathing mothers
very much alive and covered with dirt from the tiny earth
deities overhead somewhere in the beyond
blue-green sky hung with cumulus
the stars and the women
burning sticks 

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Jennifer Pons
MFA Poet & Teacher

Jennifer Pons’ work has appeared in Across the Margin and Whale Road Review. 

Photography by Tonya Smith