At the museum, I countthe number of times the Virgin Marywent to heaven. In almost all,her palms are straight andtightly clasped as sheascends. Later versions givemore warmth to her serenity—facerounder but still placid asa drying lake. Only one imageis dedicated to her birth. I standbefore it, my fingers unsurewhat to do in a roomof so much not to touch.Little Mary lays in a nursemaid’s arms. The most I can seeis the crest of her head,even then, awaitingits halo. Her motherlies exhausted on the bed,her hands morelimp and downcast than hereyes as if she was tired, already,from knowing what she borewas not hers at all.
To Hold
Meriwether Clarke
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Reproduced from Prairie Schooner Volume 92, Number 4 (Winter 2018) by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 2018 by the University of Nebraska Press.
Meriwether Clarke is a poet, essayist, and educator living in Los Angeles, California. She holds degrees in Poetry from Northwestern University and UC Irvine’s Programs in Writing where she served as co-editor-in-chief and Poetry Editor of Faultline Journal of Arts and Letters. Recent work has been seen in The Michigan Quarterly Review, The Journal, Gigantic, Sequins, The Superstition Review, Salt Hill, Juked, Memorious, Dialogist, and Prelude, among others. She has been a scholarship resident at the Vermont Studio Center and the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. She currently serves as a Contributing Editor for Entropy, is a volunteer editor for Trumpwatch from Entropy, and is at work on her first full length book manuscript. Her chapbook, twenty-first century woman, is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press. You can contact her @mweths.
Winter 2018
Lincoln, Nebraska
University of Nebraska
Editor-in-Chief
Timothy Schaffert
Managing Editor;
Jessica Poli
Prairie Schooner, an international literary magazine, publishes poetry, short fiction, and essays from around the world. In recent years, the quarterly has included authors from six of the seven continents (with subscribers in just as many). Historically, it is one of the nation’s five oldest quarterlies and will celebrate its centennial with the Spring 2027 issue. A project of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln English Department since its debut in 1927, Prairie Schooner is one of UNL’s most important cultural exports and research legacies. Not only has it published some of modern literature’s most notable writers, but it has also provided opportunities for generations of students to gain first-hand editorial experience.
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