—for K
(as much as any reader
could be trusted to close
their hands—not too tightly
or too loosely—around
what you put there, be it
muttering tinderbox or
abandoned, intact wasp nest,
or poured milk or four
hummingbirds; new
words, still tender from
the making, old words
newly bruised in the
rearranging, the rending,
the mending what was rent)
She opened her wise hands
and said put it here
and whatever it was,
you did.
link to video
Liz Ahl is the author of Beating the Bounds (2017, Hobblebush Books) and A Case for Solace (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2022), winner of the 2023 New Hampshire Literary Award in Poetry. Her most recent chapbook is A Stanza is a Place to Stand (2023, Seven Kitchens Press). Recipient of an LGBTQ+ Desert Rat Residency for 2026, Ahl’s poetry has appeared recently or is forthcoming in TAB: The Journal of Poetry and Poetics, Rhino, SWWIM, Cherry Tree, The Fourth River, and The Poets’ Touchstone. She lives in Holderness, New Hampshire.
