In the Beginning
by Danika Kelly

In the beginning, there was your mouth:
soft rose, rose murmur, murmured breath, a woman
cardinal wind that drew my needle north.
Magnetic flux, the press of form to form

In the beginning, there was your mouth–
the frail head, the path lead faintly opened,

the crayon river-carved, farther south,
and ahead: the field, the direction chosen. 

In the beginning there was your mouth,
a sky full of stars, raked or raking, clock–
wise , or west, and in the close or mammoth
matter, my hearts red muscle, knocked and knocked.

In the beginning, there was your mouth,
And nothing since but what the earth bears out.

Danika Kelly is the author of the Renunciations
(Gray wolf Press, 2021). She is assistant professor 
in English Department at the University of Iowa.

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