Collide, by Heather Evans Smith.
When I realized that I was no longer weighing down the boat.
That someone had built a throne
for me out of coral and abalone.
That the walls were dissolving, like a final
joy suppressed forever: The opening
and closing
of the mouth
of my angelic sister, her
hooves still damp from wading in those waters, whispering.
Laura Kasischke has published eight collections of poetry and eight novels. Her most recent collection, SPACE, IN CHAINS (Copper Canyon 2011) received the National Book Critics Circle Award. She lives in Chelsea, MIchigan, with her husband and son and teaches at the University of Michigan.