Palimpsest

Photo: © Olga Breydo. All Rights Reserved.

Returning home, after so long away . . .
mint leaves and cicada shells,
hill-crests hung with violet mist.

I lounge outdoors on a canvas tarp,
stretch my fingers and toes
to the raw edges, watch red ants

scuttle in grass that shifts
from cobalt to emerald to viridian.
The hills grow taller and more central.

Cézanne hikes to a horse-meadow above Aix
to paint another Sainte-Victoire.
The faces in Ohio grow flat, hyper-pigmented.

Hocking Hills, Ohio


S. Maniaci was a semi-finalist in the 2020 Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers. She also received an honorable mention in the 2017 River Styx International Poetry Prize and was a finalist in their 2020 Prize. She’s thrilled to have this, her second publication, in Cagibi.

Appears In

Issue 13

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