Some Might Say Grace

Picture a Florida Tuesday, summer warming up the air
like a weapon. The woman, lost in her own mind. Where else?

She’s been cautioned. She hears warnings, speaks them
on good days, speaks them fully on her best days. She knows

the same hand that applied the wound can’t fix the wound.
This, then, sobriety: the brain as a snake shedding

then clutching its skins like beloved children then choking
as they turn to dust then shedding again— some might say grace,

the kinder ones, the ones who recognize no wild animal
can be approached all at once, or forever.

Ruth Baumann is the author of Parse (Black Lawrence Press, 2018). She is also the author of five chapbooks. Her poems have been published in Colorado Review, Sonora Review, The Journal, Third Coast & others. She is a PhD candidate at Florida State University.