Anna Sandy-Elrod

The Sibyl Speaks to Circe

As a child, pulled
into the black shine
of obsidian—
When you made your love
into a myth,
your heart’s rival
into a nightmare,
you didn’t know the name
for it. Upon turning
the first man
into sniveling beast,
you did. Like the quick conjure
under the right moon,
the fixed herb,
the clench of bloodstone
in a fist.
How a candy jar riots.
How the meaninglessness
of time cartwheels by.
You come to call yourself witch.
You come to say spell.
Even the gods will
avoid your island.
Your island, yours.

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Anna Sandy-Elrod is a PhD poet at Georgia State University, where she also teaches. She is the current Editor in Chief of New South Journal, as well as of Birdcoat Quarterly. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in the Green Mountains Review, Adirondack Review, North American Review, Threepenny Review, Calyx, Arkana, Tammy and others. She lives in Atlanta with her husband and three cute cats.