“Stagehand” and other poems by Jade Riordan

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Old Ink

A glass mountain 
to sip from the laments
lost deep in the earth

A ladder to climb
home again

A heap of gold		
en years
through which 
the light 	shone in

O see 
the open window	
      rot	
           hurt		
                   ribbon
of all that had happened

O 
rejoice still	

We have lived


The above poem is an erasure of Margaret Hunt’s 1884 translation 
of “Old Rinkrank” from Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm.

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Mint Family

The summer blossoms
with fields of French lavender—
dress in perfumed air.

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