Featured Poem II • April 2016

Daily Office
Virginia M Mohlere
I am a deer in the morning— step out of sleep’s country shy, ankles delicate as flutes. I am the noontime kestrel— cast my shadow far below silent, eyes sharp as blades. I am the moon’s own salmon— dive into the thrumming dark eager, mouth open as the sky.

Virginia M Mohlere was born on one solstice, and her sister was born on the other. Her chronic writing disorder stems from early childhood. She lives in the swamps of Houston and writes with a fountain pen that is extinct in the wild. Her work has been seen in Jabberwocky, Lakeside Circus, Goblin Fruit, Strange Horizons, Ideomancer, and Through the Gate.
She tells us that “‘Daily Office’ started out as a blog comment on Terri Windling’s excellent blog, Myth & Moor. The line ‘I am a deer in the morning’ wasn’t content with just the one poem and demanded another. The term ‘daily office’ is a reference to the liturgical calendar, the rite of prayers throughout the day, of which this poem is one of mine. I imagine there will be more.”
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