Having Been Born, Having Been Raised, by Julie Choffel

Having Been Born, Having Been Raised
 
Purified by an authentic filter
orange for the fake names we say
or blue for clean 
slate
 
the ideal slices through us
embedded with shock
 
safe vessel for turning 
a thing over
like a rock
like a shangri-la
 
that we could still be surprised
by the amber inventory
four o’clocks in the floral clock
or daturas at midnight
 
sometimes we leave a dream before 
it’s done with us
 
sometimes we hold on
to the wrong thing
dumb to our instincts
 
one day wake up, feeling
what a stone feels
leaving the hand

Julie Choffel

Julie Choffel is the author of The Hello Delay (Fordham UP) and most recently the chapbook The Inevitable Return of What We Do Not Love (Finishing Line Press). Born and raised in Austin, TX, she now lives near Hartford, teaches at the University of Connecticut, and dreams about the desert.