Mary Kinzie's "Theine"

Mary Kinzie’s interest in the expressive fragmenting of language gives her verse a particular poignancy – a kind of a melancholy nod to the passing beauty and potential of our words.


Theine

If compelled
to give it up
I would lift
as leaves do
loosened
from the tree
and feel the floating
thread of my thought
blown out
beyond itself
               line loose
               on the water
wandering
cinder
sleepier
than air

Excerpt from DRIFT © 2003 by Mary Kinzie. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.


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