Monosyllabic Slide III
WHAT
has lured you to the
stake in my heart
I am dwarf in your eyes
You dug my grave
then shaved your head
I crown it with a moon
of thorns
What ghost floats near
Weeds cling to her hair
The moon her muse
bobs in a drift
while you sing to the
bitch of the sea.
Rohana McCormack received her BA and MA degrees from Duke University and studied semesters of poetry with Stanley Kunitz, Felix Stefanile, May Swenson and John Woods. She has won awards from Purdue University, Writer’s Digest, Lucidity 2005 International and 2006 Juried Contests. She has a new chapbook, Free Will, The Billiard King and Other Mad Dogmas (Pudding House Publications, 2007). Anthologies include Indiana Sesquicentennial Poets (Ball State University), Indiana Women Poets, edited by Alice Friman, Purdue Miscellany, Passagers #44, Contest Winners 2007, and Hymns to the Outrageous (Pudding House Publications, 2007).