in memory of Deborah Digges
Read the editor's note.
Reflect that this manuscript
has been respected. Wonder,
when you read that they tried
to preserve her intentions,
how much of her handwriting spattered
each page.
Read the epigraph--something
obscure--well, that's how
she would have wanted it.
Read the apologetic jacket,
the back cover with its
flat, detached praises.
On the back flap, her photograph.
Look hard at the headshot
as though her eyes, warm even
in a black and white rectangle,
have some explanation.
Close the book.
Try again tomorrow.
Painting: Cloud #16 by Ambera Wellmann
