vers

      

              the static

       vers    -e proof of a shared

   a-    vers   -ion to the effects of turning—

       vers    -us this, the

       vers    -e as plow line, as plumbline, this an

    ad-       vers   -e possession, territory unmoored from its owning /





















       vers   -us,
             happy

   anni-    vers   -ary, once more together in an egg-shaped loop around the sun. are you well

       vers   -ed in my verity, I am. a lady. I am

    re-       vers    -ing course, a girl in the shadow of the duchess—she

     a-       vers    a statement of her truth, her diminution, her turning into a very-much-indeed

    in-       vers   -ion of herself, yet unknown but familiar, familial, a vision in silk, a tufted

       vers   -ace handbag in hand/





















       vers   -e

   con-      vers   -ing , a conference, a gem, a collection of

    ob-       vers   -e
             facets /





       vers   -atile, virile, ventral

       ver s  -ging on the far-from-virginal, crested in

       ver s  -million velvet. the proclamation released with labile swiftness, a fortress denser/





       vers   -ed in the tinny regulation, she

   disco-      vers   it is over, our covert dalliance. observe. a ferrous powder

    co-       vers  the chandelier/





















       vers   -se-beguiled, she is spelled
                     with a

      vers   -al letter. a fearsome voice exposed, the virgule hanging. tongue dripping in diamonds. the ad

      vers   -e tuning the atmosphere hot. pink. a Martian Palace of

      vers   -ailles. the

   uni-     vers    -e is single-mouthed, sucking its sound into a pocket. balancing on a

      vers   -ant slope, housed in a formal garden of my choosing, I open
                                    my chest to the weather
 
 

Cataract

      the initial cataract1 was the flood
      gate of heaven, a structure intended to keep the rain back. holding water
      in the sky preserves the land as land. This is the defense of the desert
      against the creeping  sea.
      A flood is a body   of water moving to its improper place is
      a state of swelling is the improper   expansion of such a body. the cataract2
      becomes the waterfall, the precise escape of the liquid
      the wall of its name was meant to keep, as it has always
      rained, the breach is implied.  the water must fall  headlong
      as in, without obstacle. “headlong” to mean with break-neck
      speed. your head is not safe
      in a cataract2. The interruption of rocks
      or earth births a cascade. The cascade is a diminutive
      fall. light cascades through a window grate, another cataract3,
      to be considered, that mesh over the opening of a building. a portcullis,
      named cataract4 for the liquid slipping of its spikes into ground,
      its motion that of the cataract2 the cataract1
      stilled. A cervical stitch keeps a body within a body, the cataract4 keeps
      a flood of people unrealized.  I am too
      afraid of the ledge of my brain.     the cataract5 of the eye turns
      light to liquid.  clouded.  bright.   the mote dehisces to release an atmosphere, the
      blindness unlocatable.     this cloud accompanied
      me from the floodgates of heaven, and I find
      all the cataracts12345 are clouds,     in the sky, on the lens, of the mist rising
      as water hits yet another water, making figures out of air. A cataract is a cloud moving
      with uncanny speed. the marbler combs his pigments, brings the pattern
      out with a sheet hovering over a pool. here is the ledge.
      here is the margin. under a still sky, the glass
      flowers of the desert, filled as they are with bladders
      of air, float on the floodtide, the clink of glass on glass re-sounding
      upon each of their meetings at the surface of the water.

Kelly Hoffer (she/her/hers) is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her book manuscript Undershore was a finalist for the 2020 National Poetry Series. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Prelude online, The Bennington Review, and Second Factory, among others. She is currently a PhD student in English at Cornell University.