JANE C. MILLER

Angles

Light filtering past the edge of the window shade 
forms a long comb on the wall, its teeth 
like the deckle edge of antique pages.  
Elsewhere, sunrise illuminates 
needled pines, porcupine quills, fence posts; 
all things that night quells, light sharpens, 
a saw old as myth, this shift—
the light on your face as you sleep, 
your lashes still as the yarn fringe 
on our rumpled bedspread, the hanging 
threads on my loom. What stories do 
your dreams awake that morning will fade                            
into everyday chores our hands make possible,                     
your right one idling here like a rake in a barn, 
poised to place its order on the day. Let the sun 
mark its rise on half the earth. We are in no hurry. 

Jane C. Miller is the author of Canticle for Remnant Days (2024) and coauthor of Walking the Sunken Boards (2019). Her poetry has appeared in RHINO, Colorado Review, UCity Review, and Bear Review, among others. Her honors include the Naugatuck River Review Narrative Poetry Contest and two state fellowships in poetry. She has been nominated for Best New Poets and Best of the Net. She co-edits the online poetry journal, ൪uartet. www.janecmiller.com.