genesisFall2016.pdf


8  genesis fall 2016

You said, When I’m dead, do my hair like Madonna.

Last fall I read a poem out loud to you and a room of strangers. 

didn’t even turn red—but you cried during the line about the old yellow house; 
I know it reminded you of your dad. 

I hadn’t seen your face so soaked since the night that yellow house turned 

singing that Postal Service song: I am thinking it’s a sign that the freckles 

(Although we have never kissed except for one Halloween, 
and what could be real between a mere mermaid and an elf queen?) 

For the Freckle in Her Eye

Rachel Leonard



genesis fall 2016  9

wrapped gifts you got that year. So quickly we became 

In December we made stockings with our names at the top but our home 
had no hearth to hang them above. On the coldest mornings 

eye. 

But we no longer aligned. So you packed yourself up in a box 

In January I watched the Christmas tree in our living room die 
and I remembered one hundred years ago, telling you that when I wither 
I want to be rolled into a ball of good soil. I said, I want to grow a tree.

you had told me earnestly.

For the Freckle in Her Eye