DAYNA PATTERSON, "SELF-PORTRAIT AS MIRANDA WITH XENOPHILIA AND APOSTASY" (Issue 17)

SELF-PORTRAIT AS MIRANDA WITH XENOPHILIA AND APOSTASY

The world begins with yes.

—Terry Tempest Williams

After a short courtship, we wed,
all according to Father’s plan,
then left the island—and Father—behind.

No, that’s not how the story goes.
But it’s how this story goes.

We left him with his angel
-conveyed magic books, his staff
unbroken, his Urim and Thummim
to translate the ancient
urge. We left old

feuds, martyrs who traversed
the waters, who pioneered
their way here. Loathe to leave,
we left, Prospero’s promises broke
like stormclouds pouring
pitch and feathers. Peeling them off,
we left cells—strata of ourselves—behind.

We left, stealthing Ariel and Caliban along,
misfits who burned to serve
no god but their gut, Ariel at the helm steering toward expanse,
Caliban in the crow’s nest aiming at the unnameable.

Brave? The ship tilted full bore toward horizon, the ledge
of a new world.

ABOUT THE POET

Writer, editor, and logophile, Dayna Patterson makes her home in the Pacific Northwest. She earned her MFA from Western Washington University, where she served as the managing editor of Bellingham Review. She is the poetry editor for Exponent II Magazine and the founding editor-in-chief of Psaltery & Lyre. Her literary obsessions include poetry and spirituality, and women in Shakespeare. DaynaPatterson.com

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