Blackbird Archive
← v7n2, Fall 2008
Poetry · Volume 7, Number 2

Children

Sarah Vap

When, beyond the patience of night’s long black grass,

they’re locked into that shape

of a small white chastity—it’s hardly this simple—

of their basic cells. It’s hardly

winterpond’s peaceful dose of sleep,

or Faulkner’s rosary. It’s what their hearts hold

that becomes truth,

as far as we know truth. It’s the gular pouch of their hearts;

it’s the trace of clacking

in their sky becomes the truth.

childhoodfamily
Sarah Vap

Sarah Vap’s third collection of poems, Faulkner’s Rosary , is forthcoming from Saturnalia Books. She is the author of two books of poetry, American Spikenard (University of Iowa Press, 2007), winner of the 2006 Iowa Poetry Prize, and Dummy Fire (Saturnalia Books, 2007), winner of the 2006 Saturnalia Poetry Prize. She lives on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, teaches at Olympic College, and serves as poetry editor for 42opus .