Love Story
after Jane Hirshfield
if for a moment
I were the love of your life
if the grace of steel and wind
held like a clasp
around your neck
if I grace at your neck
this day rosemary
poppies
if rosemary and poppies
and sugar bowls
if bowls of poppies
knew rosemary
if my love
grief in May
sea in moonlight
if May
teal moonlight
if the moon
of teal May
if the rosemary
of this clasp held you
if your hold
steel and poppy seeds
if for a moment
the color
your neck
drained upward
if I were to catch
if I dropped
if the love dropped if
the sugar bowl
dropped I
J. Baugher is the author of two ekphrastic poetry collections, The Body’s Physics (Tebot Bach, 2013) and Coördinates of Yes (Ahadada Books, 2010). Her nonfiction, fiction, and poetry have been published in The Writer’s Chronicle, Boulevard, NANO Fiction, Nimrod, and The Southern Review, among others.