Maxine Patroni

Ode to Gray

O our buried.

            O our song
around the fire,
            which dies
but comes back
            once we feed it.

O crush.
O mussel shell
            I use to mark
            an X on your skin.

O disappearing glare
when night comes—
            why do we rush
            for it?

            O but we have to.

To touch or not to touch you?

O the easy questions
you ask
            like how I know
            we’re alive.

            O your shadow
how it rises
like a spear.

O owl, its wings circling.

            O how I see your ghost
in all things

just before they move
and just after.

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Maxine Patroni graduated with an MFA in Poetry from New York University where she was the Teachers and Writers Fellow. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in The Literary Review, Greensboro Review, Allegheny Review and elsewhere.