Jack B. Bedell

On Being an Angel 

                   —after Francesca Woodman’s Angel series

Dream of skin, of the onslaught

of afternoon light, the rustle of

breeze through oak leaves,

of weight, being bound

to wooden floor by bones,

not fallen but found there

surrounded by windows and umbrellas

and the emptiness left

when a wood duck takes flight,

the absence of green, eruption

of brown against white. Dream

of all this a hundred times, a

thousand, and what you know of

time won't move a single grain

through the glass. Dream of

grace, and what hair must

feel like brushing under fingertips,

the angles of mirrors leaned

against whitewashed walls.

Dream of wounds you cannot

suffer, of sweet, sweet breath.

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Jack B. Bedell is Professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. Jack’s work has appeared in HAD, Heavy Feather, Pidgeonholes, The Shore, Moist, Okay Donkey, EcoTheo, The Hopper, Terrain, and other journals. His work has also been selected for inclusion in Best Microfiction and Best Spiritual Literature. His latest collection is Ghost Forest (Mercer University Press, 2024). He served as Louisiana Poet Laureate 2017-2019.