Made from fibres not readily penetrated Naomi Foyle (bio) We had to decide how to dress, weighing in the balance the searing heat and politeness to our hosts. Some chose to pack light, go bare-armed, risking the glares of the sun and old women. Others trawled the high street, fingering linen—the obvious choice—to mark us as another kind of Englishwoman: those who remain pale beneath ivory, khaki, and sepia sheaths, our skin creased like out-of-date maps to an oasis we could never reach on our own. a blue field— wind wrinkled sky-clad Retting the histories of borders drawn with a ruler, canals and peninsulas seized, villages winnowed and shtetls heckled, blankets infected, tongues uprooted, generations threshed—we reap the bitter dew of voices wrung from outlawed clouds. a rusted key— a lace handkerchief left on a line [End Page 54] Naomi Foyle Naomi Foyle is a British-Canadian poet, novelist, and essayist. Her poetry publications include The Night Pavilion (Waterloo Press, 2008), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and Adamantine (Red Hen/Pighog Press), which she launched in New York City, New Jersey, and western Canada in 2019. The author of five science fiction novels, she is currently adapting her eco-SF quartet The Gaia Chronicles for puppet theater. She edited the bilingual anthology A Blade of Grass: New Palestinian Poetry (Smokestack Books, 2017), and for her poetry and essays about Ukraine she was awarded the 2014 Hryhorii Skovoroda prize. She lives in Brighton and teaches at the University of Chichester. Copyright © 2020 Middlebury College Publications