by Nicole Yurcaba
I am washing my face with the sheds
of a woman my lover hung across
the lath
fence in hopes of rain,
sweet rain,
a purge billowing dust
from trenches and gutters,
a blow to leaf-packed
ditches where,
eventually,
I’ll see a vulture stripping
her remains—
swift tug,
jerk of neck
and press of claw—
through
a kitchen window
speckled
with white film.
Nicola Yurcaba is a Ukrainian-American poet and essayist. Her poems and essays have appeared in The Atlanta Review, The Lindenwood Review, Whiskey Island, Raven Chronicles, Appalachian Heritage, North of Oxford, and many other online and print journals. Nicole holds an MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University, is the recipient of a July 2020 Writing Residency at Gullkistan, Creative Center for the Arts in Iceland, and is a Tupelo Press June 2020 30 for 30 featured poet. Her poetry collection Triskaidekaphobia is forthcoming Black Spring Group in 2022. She teaches poetry workshops for Southern New Hampshire University and works as a career counselor for Blue Ridge Community College. On Twitter @NYurtsaba.
