November Ghazal of the Month

Her

Jane Reichhold

soaring above the morning light, the way local color descends
from the sky, the daily worship of miracles in stones hereabout

paint is attracted to paper by the journey of an unfettered mind
the vice is vibrant but, thank god, not completely hereditary

the gospel according to women who spread their soft legs
bumps against the continued male hardness of church heresy

secret rites the heritage of helix twined beads' intensity
where the spaces in between conceal information hermitic

lifting humanity up to higher goals as the squalling newborn
wails in protest to incoming air; the pulled-out strain of a hernia

does the girl child dedicate a page of destiny to the guardians
manifest in fleshless bones to become the age's own hero

a life, a work, more complete than any canvas can support
each female, as Jane, facing the mold of man creates—herself