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<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Inside the Inside<\/p>\n
By<\/p>\n
Jennifer Angelina Petro<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Inside the inside<\/p>\n
Of her breath,<\/p>\n
Where songs live,<\/p>\n
And praise,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There is a space\u2014<\/p>\n
Round as the cup<\/p>\n
Of a nightingale\u2019s nest,<\/p>\n
Hidden by a thicket,<\/p>\n
Wing covered,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Where she lives\u2014<\/p>\n
This little one\u2014<\/p>\n
Holding the uncorruptable songs,<\/p>\n
The unmolestable poems\u2014<\/p>\n
Inside, like water roots<\/p>\n
Of lilies,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She sits, tracing spirals<\/p>\n
In the sand, watched over<\/p>\n
By Euterpe and Thalia,<\/p>\n
Terpsichore and Polyhymnia,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
They cannot keep her<\/p>\n
From being invaded,<\/p>\n
From years of her life<\/p>\n
Being stolen,<\/p>\n
From her innocence<\/p>\n
Being crushed by night<\/p>\n
Predators and shadow-<\/p>\n
Dappled afternoon monsters,<\/p>\n
Though they try with all<\/p>\n
Their might to stand<\/p>\n
Bracing against the door.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What they can do<\/p>\n
Is protect the breath<\/p>\n
Inside her breath,<\/p>\n
Where songs live,<\/p>\n
And praise, where poems<\/p>\n
Sleep, like nightingale\u2019s eggs,<\/p>\n
Where drawings manifest, like<\/p>\n
Treasure maps,<\/p>\n
Where dances unfurl, like<\/p>\n
Galaxies, where music flows, like<\/p>\n
Ribbons and rivers,<\/p>\n
Where rhythm lives, like<\/p>\n
The wing-beats of every<\/p>\n
Rising phoenix. That<\/p>\n
They can do.\u00a0 And will<\/p>\n
Continue to do until she walks<\/p>\n
With them to the seaside,<\/p>\n
And points towards home.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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