Abigail Cloud

On the limited use of Ascalapha odorata to predict a death

No moth can predict your death.
The black witch can only borrow
a bat’s shape, swoop under
the lintel at night, and span
your nightmares. Never keep
a candle tree. Never burn
the mesquite. The odorata sits
and lists the possible deaths
with commas, measures threads
along its white bar. They say
it brings back lost souls. No.
Never who. Never where. When
it sweeps your home’s four
corners, pray. Draw back
the curtain. Fire all your lights.

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Abigail Cloud is the Editor-in-Chief of Mid-American Review and teaches full time at Bowling Green State University, from which she received an MFA. Poetry credits include The Gettysburg Review, APR, Pleiades and The Cincinnati Review. Her poetry collection, Sylph, won the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize and was published in 2014 by Pleiades Press.