Not unlike my grandmother’s lace tablecloth—
guipure of intimacy. A sonata coursing 
through tempo & mood, as family trees hook 
through decades of characteristic, meandering 
through change, chance. Not unlike a friendship 
attempted after a split—no seeds to plant, roots 
pre-etched. Like the sketch the surgeon scribbled 
on a paper towel: How points A & B would unite—
piece of small intestine meeting up with its larger 
cousin. How their liaison would grow sour, illicit, 
maybe fatal. How points A & B would shift 
to C & D. How she architected a second design 
in ballpoint ink on a fresh paper towel. Not unlike 
a black Lego truck. Or beads of a Samburu warrior. 

Epigraph above is quoted from the definition of “anastomosis” in Merriam-Webster.com (link retrieved 24 February 2022).

Judith Terzi

is the author of Museum of Rearranged Objects (Kelsay Books), as well as five chapbooks, including If You Spot Your Brother Floating By and Casbah (Kattywompus Press). Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. A poem, “Ode to Malala Yousafzai,” was included on a “Heroines” episode of BBC Radio 3: Words and Music. She taught French for many years in Pasadena, California, as well as English at California State University, Los Angeles, and in Algiers, Algeria. Her new chapbook, Now, Somehow, will appear in 2022.

More about the author’s books available at her website:
https://www.sharingtabouli.com/books.

See also poems online, and a list of awards.