Vox Populi

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Laure-Anne Bosselaar: Briar

A friend betrayed me yesterday. I loved him 

for his rage, hungers & big flat feet he stomped 

.

as if he wanted to leave imprints everywhere 

he went. I never told him how his stomping moved me, 

.

the same way this blooming briar does, waving

in the rush & dust of the highway off-ramp.

.

My friend betrayed me for a fast mark, a few gasps 

around a spilled secret, no bigger than a briar’s thorn. 

.

I’m one of the cars the ramp jams into town, & because 

it would cause horn-blasting rage, & because 

.

for each betrayal we lose a little fervor, I don’t 

reach to tear a flower from the briar to keep in a book — 

.

his book — that he signed Yours, always. Lost 

secrets, friends, fervors — we are made of this dust. 

.

Let briars grow from it, & bloom.


Copyright 2019 Laure-Anne Bosselaar. First published in Small Gods of Grief  (BOA Editions). Included in Vox Populi by permission of the author.

3 comments on “Laure-Anne Bosselaar: Briar

  1. Gerald Fleming
    March 23, 2023

    Laure-Anne Bosselaar is one of our finest poets.

    Like

  2. Kathy Nelson
    March 27, 2019

    Love the anaphora and the SALs!

    Liked by 1 person

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This entry was posted on March 25, 2019 by in Most Popular, Poetry and tagged , , .

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