It’s undisputed, for example, that at the age of 13, Mr. X did not understand the days of the week, the months of the year, the seasons, how to tell time, the principle that subtraction is the opposite of addition, or standard units of measurement. – Lawyer describing a death row inmate
An inch is to light
as mirror is to failure.
Sorrow is to gravel
as throat is to reach.
Wheel is to eight
as heart is to trench.
Vein is to asphalt
as mower is to knife.
Pearl is to falter
as bark is to pity.
Storm is to siren
as candle is to mile.
Fault is to night
as dog is to steel.
Cigarette is to bone
as quench is to loss.
Loss, is its own.
Jane Craven lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and has worked in systems development for AT&T and as the director of a contemporary art museum. She has poems forthcoming in the Texas Review and Still: The Journal.
