“Lazuli” is one of five spellbinding poems by Joanna C. Valente in our Winter 2016 issue. This is the third of those poems that we’ve posted online; you can read the other two (“The Sun Rises Over Manhattan and Sets in Brooklyn” and “The Hierophant Builds a Bridge Between Deity and Humanity”) in FLAPPERHOUSE #8, or in Joanna’s spectacular tarot-inspired collection The Gods Are Dead.

{ X }

GOD TOLD ME he wanted to create
a lovelier girl of auburn and ivory
laying her feet in an apple orchard

near a house on the hill where bodies
float in the heart and lungs of her family

channeling lavender soaked memories
and the uterus’ of virgins who have
too many “feels” & now

i’m standing outside a restaurant
in the cold and a man comes up

to me, says i wouldn’t keep you
waiting. he has always kept me
waiting.

{ X }

JOANNA C. VALENTE is sometimes a mermaid and sometimes a human. She is the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014) and The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press), and received her MFA at Sarah Lawrence College. Her collection Marys of the Sea is forthcoming from ELJ Publications in 2016. Some of her work appears in The Huffington Post, Columbia Journal, The Atlas Review, The Destroyer, among others. In 2011, she received the American Society of Poet’s Prize. She edits Yes, Poetry, and is the Managing Editor for Luna Luna Magazine.