Amy Beeder

Isle of the Narrator

It’s true these boots were taken from a dead man,

but he’d already drown’d: I didn’t want his purse.

It’s true I’ve carried infant bones within a kettle

but for the purposes of study only, brother

trust me: you & I are royal twins, operatically estranged—

observe our matching birthmarks, side & thigh!  Sister,

come ashore: nights here are Dionysian: crowns

of thicket, silly incense & umbilic torches,

horns & holy rattles attend the garlanded bull.

Though convictions and my eyeteeth dim in daylight

our severance is too high a price to pay for truth.

And anyway you didn’t voyage here for truth

Author: Amy Beeder

Amy Beeder is the author of three books. Her latest “And So Wax Was Made & Also Honey,” is out from Tupelo Press. A recipient of an NEA Fellowship, a “Discovery”/The Nation Award, James Merrill Residence, Bread Loaf Scholarship, and Witness Writers Award, she has also worked as a creative writer instructor, legal writer, freelance reporter, political asylum specialist, high-school teacher in West Africa, and an election and human rights observer in Haiti and Suriname.

Plume: Issue #30 December 2013