Laurie klein

Laurie Klein is the author of a poetry collection, Where the Sky Opens and a chapbook, Bodies of Water, Bodies of Flesh. A grateful recipient of the Thomas Merton Prize, her work appears in numerous journals, anthologies, and recordings. She blogs monthly at lauriekleinscribe.com.

Any given thing

Today you gather

three friends around an apple.

A basin, a cloth, and knife await.

Say you cradle

the fruit of downfall

until each cupped spill of water silvers

the apple’s cheek, calling to mind

a newborn’s brow. The tiny pulse.

Let it be toweled,

swaddled a moment, then

quartered by one, deftly

cored by another. Consumed together

in silence, savored

shamelessly, each noisy

bite the startle of sacrament:

the juice, the flesh.

Originally published in Books and Culture, https://www.booksandculture.com/articles/2016/julaug/any-given-thing-epiphany.html.

Read more of Laurie’s work in Solum Journal Volume I and Volume II.