Wild strawberry had been rising from rocky places.
On the street small boys in red.
Above them on poles some crows.
A delphinium,
a bartender,
a hundred times.
Failed to joy, I fell
a year. No one saw my blurs and constellations.
A swirl of streets slurred to summer rain.
How many slants of light
in the intimate alphabet? I knew them all.
Looking back—
two chairs and thirsty people, small leftover goals.
My tongue still willing to tongue whatever words.
Lauren Camp is the author of two books, most recently The Dailiness, winner of the 2014 Poetry Book Prize from the National Federation of Press Women and an Editor's Pick at World Literature Today. Her third book, One Hundred Hungers, won the 2014 Dorset Prize from Tupelo Press, and will be published in 2016. www.laurencamp.com.