“Moonlit Dreams” by Gabriel Joseph Marie Augustin Ferrier (French, 1847-1914)

Van Gogh to His Mistress

He sensed his ear,
but he could
not see it.
In the blind
this is called
blindsight.

The last failed
effort
of the body
to survive—
Keep this
object carefully.

The ear rested
on the table
alone
among blue tints
and suppressed
shadows.

To present
an ear
in the middle
of the night,
an arterial flap,
flap of
bat’s wing,
wing of angel.

First published in Salamander, 2014, and, also, included in The Lunatic Ball, Kattywompus Press, 2015, and in CRACKED PIANO, CavanKerry Press, 2019.

Margo’s latest chapbook,The Lunatic Ball, was published by Kattywompus Press (2015). Her other three poetry collections include a chapbook, The Hudson Line, Main Street Rag (2012); a full-length collection, Frozen Spring, winner of the 2002 Mid-List Press First Series Award for Poetry; and another chapbook, Reading the Night Sky, winner of the 1996 Riverstone Press Chapbook Prize (Introduction by Denise Levertov).

Her poems have appeared widely in literary magazines and anthologies including Salamander (forthcoming), Blackbird, Poem-A-Day, poets.org, Academy of American Poets, March, 2016; Prairie Schooner; New England Review; West Branch; Poet Lore, Cincinnati Review; Rattapallax; Webster Review; Cadence of Hooves; Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence; Chance of a Ghost Anthology; The Breath of Parted Lips, Volume II; and No More Masks. She is the founding and a current co-editor of Slapering Hol Press and the founder of The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center. For more information, please see: www.margostever.com.