dear decelerate Anne, you are wise beyond
your imagination beyond what little
thoughts you’ve engineered
in your slow motion heart pump,
pump, the blood still runs and you are left,
petticoat inside out and stockings filthy
with grit and brimstone resin,
like the melting pupil of your eye
i’ve heard voices lashing, share the same birth day—
what it is to be the dog’s pain
to attempt to be more than
the name: Anne. Anne. Anne. Anne.
overbearing, still hearing our name
Courtney Leigh Jameson graduated from Saint Mary’s College of California with an MFA in Poetry (2013). Her poems have appeared in Similar: Peaks, Clockwise Cat, FLARE: Flagler Review, Crack the Spine, Danse Macabre, and Cowboy Poetry Press. She currently resides in Arizona and is the The Bowhunter of White Stag Journal.