the day is a jewel—its air is green and blue—it shimmers
a diamond broach—I feel its needle
stab me
while I talk about the mind’s heights and steep
descents—so sudden
the fall is—
elevator like—the dark glistening cables, the smell
of black grease—these cliffs are like the mind’s
walls
I navigate—
they have the birds of evening in their halls
Christine Garren is the author of the poetry collections Afterworld and Among the Monarchs. Her latest collection is The Piercing, published in 2006 in the Southern Messenger Poets series from Louisiana State University Press. A Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist and NEA Fellowship recipient, she was born in Philadelphia and has lived in Greensboro, North Carolina, since 1979.