The Psychic Tells Me My Mother Has Died
She lifts a card—a woman
in robe & crown—up to the light. You have lost someone important,
she says. Yes, I nod, say nothing. She stares,
thoughtful, at the spread of cards between us. Protector,
she tells me, she was a protector
for you. Yes, I nod. It’s not
as though no one knows of her passing, or knew, it’s just that
the water glass next to me has not been moved,
but the water vibrates
almost invisibly.
Sound I can see,
& she says so little, it’s perfect. The card
held up. The spread
of cards between us.
A tapestry
over the table.
She studies the cards
on the tapestryWater
in a water glass,
untouched.
Kimberly Ann Priest is the author of Slaughter the One Bird, finalist in the American Best Book Awards, and chapbooks The Optimist Shelters in Place, Parrot Flower, and Still Life. She is an associate poetry editor for Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry and assistant professor at Michigan State University.