Notes on Leaving

For Sarah R.


You come to a well,

there was a choice.



Something was burning.

You felt something.



The text is ambiguous.

There was a vow.



The shepherds were unruly.

Her arm was eight feet long.



She was in the palace.

She was not in the palace.



You write it on a tablet.

Everyone talks about the Cushite woman.



You write it on a tablet.

How do you hide a baby?



All the babies were in the river.

You put your hope in a basket,



and you say the words.

At some point you kill someone.



All around, frogs, boils.

You escape.



There is one word that means lip, edge, or shore.

You part the sea,



it’s obvious, only if

you call it obvious.