Pastoral

                                    “To forget would be best, but I have
never forgotten anything yet.
–Miklos Radnoti

 

In the song about sheep
the lake serves as mirror

In the song about death
the mirror shifts to platter
piled high with slabs of meat

served with pitchers of water
by the girl who can’t come back

When sheep drink water
water makes them well

Water a potion
Water a spell

Go to sleep
Go to sleep

Recite the alphabet
Number every sheep

Don’t think about the butcher
Don’t think about the mirror

Don’t think about the girl
her falling     the clatter

If you tell me how it ended
I will say does that matter

She got lost tending sheep
She got lost seeking water

When she learned to spell laughter
it came out as slaughter

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Jessica de Koninck is the author of one full-length collection, Cutting Room (Terrapin Books), and one chapbook, Repairs. Her poems appear in journals and anthologies including Diode, The Paterson Literary Review, and The Valparaiso Poetry Review, and have twice been featured on Verse Daily. She leads a poetry workshop at the Greenwich House Senior Center in New York City and is a long-time resident of Montclair, New Jersey, where she is very active in the community.