Faint Stars of Dread

Gillian Cummings

Unbearable, the snowdrops, as if wintercould be something lived through.Overmuch, this reminder of life,the dead earth candling its sorrowswith bowed heads in silent mourning.Implausible, to have been—meaning to have harmed, to have cutthe bud by the root—as if being could ever,perpetually, end with softness. Or beginin Kyrie eleison, a call echoed by white bells.

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Gillian Cummings is the author of The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter, selected by John Yau as the winner of the 2018 Colorado Prize for Poetry (forthcoming in November 2018) and My Dim Aviary, winner of the 2015 Hudson Prize (Black Lawrence Press, 2016). Her poems have appeared in Barrow Street, Boulevard, The Journal, The Laurel Review, and Linebreak. Her website is www.gilliancummingspoet.com.

Tupelo Quarterly

Issue 15

North Adams, Massachusetts

Editor-in-Chief: Kristina Marie Darling
Associate Editor-in-Chief: Emma Bolden

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