Lessons

to hold stillness
inside the sadness

to hold rain
inside the dust

to hold the girl
who cries on the stairs

and the dream
of the blackbird

and then the blackbird
of the dream

to hold the cold face
of the clock

the late asters
of last summer

to hold the bruise
of the rain cloud

to hold the dust cloud
and the ash cloud

and the choking cloud
of doubt

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Alison Prine’s latest collection of poems, Loss and Its Antonym (Headmistress Press, 2024), won the 2023 Sappho’s Prize in Poetry. Her debut poetry collection, Steel (Cider Press Review, 2016), was named a finalist for the 2017 Vermont Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Five Points, Harvard Review, Prairie Schooner, and others. She lives and works in Burlington, Vermont. See alisonprine.com.