For & against] Longing

Abstract

[for & against] Longing Kara Dorris (bio) Longing was invented in a drought town, where grass kindles but can't catch fire, can't light like candle wicks or sparklers,in the dreams of mothers who taught us to stitch life into the body like a rare organ, in the cool blue abandon filling their hands,the blue of Picasso's Mother & Child. My lover & I uncovered an egg one summer, nestled in our ruined electrical box, in brambles mimicking talons—there was a rebellious logic in choosing a box abandoned by us.The door was dislodged, rocking open & close praising itself as an offertorium like a painting or a poem, betting against the fortunes & eyes of scavengers.When we found the egg the wind gave it our scent then the mother couldn't want it, couldn't see beyond its threat, & since I couldn't trust its blue-speckled innocence,its instinct to veer from otherness, the want of it filled my hands & I could not want it, not its wings, not its tiny beak, not its unlit heat. [End Page 69] Kara Dorris Kara Dorris earned a PhD in literature and poetry at the University of North Texas. Currently, she is an assistant professor of English at Illinois College. Her poetry has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Puerto del Sol, Harpur Palate, Cutbank, and Crazyhorse, as well as the anthology Beauty is a Verb (Cinco Puntos Press, 2011). She has published four chapbooks: Elective Affinities (Dancing Girl Press, 2011) and Night Ride Home (Finishing Line Press, 2012), Sonnets from Vada's Beauty Parlor & Chainsaw Repair (dancing girl press, 2018), and Untitled Film Still Museum (CW Books, 2019). Copyright © 2018 University of Wisconsin Board of Regents