“Angular Bones” by Jeanie Tomasko

April 21, 2022Posted by

Anonymous Was a Woman by Natascha Graham, impressionistic painting of a woman's back

Image: “Anonymous Was a Woman” by Natascha Graham. “Angular Bones” was written by Jeanie Tomasko for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, March 2022, and selected as the Editor’s Choice. (PDF / JPG)

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Jeanie Tomasko

ANGULAR BONES

I dreamed I gave you a snow globe
and after the snow snowed
and after the plows plowed
you stood inside watching

after the snow
which was blue and had come from all directions
you stood there watching
with your impossible spine

which was blue and directionless
and it made me weep
your impossible spine
and its question of whether

and what     it made me weep
this dream and you in the impossible globe
and the question of weather
as in snow as in what will happen

to this dream of an impossible globe
you in the snow your hair a perfect storm
as in snow as in what will happen
to your angular bones

you, snow, hair, perfect storm
in this impossible dream globe
and your beautiful angular bones
after the plows have plowed

—from Ekphrastic Challenge
March 2022, Editor’s Choice

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Comment from the editor, Timothy Green: “This was an especially strong month of submissions, but reading the top 25 over and over again, I kept coming back to this surprising pantoum. I could never have imagined the figure in the painting being trapped inside a snow globe, but once she was, she really was. There’s also something about the mood of the poem, a resolute sadness to the repetition that matched the curve of the woman’s spine—I couldn’t stop re-reading it.”

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