An ache in their bellies for Rachel’s
earthy touch that weaves rough
sorrow among each breath

and bears their moist sighs
risen above fire, feeds the mewling
air. They are scrapers who strip

broken stones from her hair,
carve their names on fences
that surround her, blame

fermentation hiding in her shoes
for their singular
fall.

*

Cindy Savett is also the author of the chapbooks The Story of My Eyes (Dancing Girl Press), Battle for the Metal Kiss (H_ngm_n Books) and Rachel: In the Temporary Mist of Prayer (Big Game Books). Her poems can also be found in the anthology Challenges for the Delusional (Jane Street Press) and in LIT, Margie, Heliotrope, The Marlboro Review, 26 Magazine, Cutbank, and other print and online journals. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she lives with her family on the outskirts of Philadelphia, where she teaches poetry workshops to psychiatric inpatients at several area hospitals.