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Arches, Utah
Irena Praitis

patience
and the slow crumbling
away of shored up
insides
eventually
offer
clarity
a way
to see
through

and somehow
to breathe sky
through the moment
of an arch
of stone
differs
from breathing
that sky
arch unhindered
above

—
Irena Praitis is a professor of creative writing and literature at California State University, Fullerton. She has authored six books, most recently Rods and Koans (Red Mountain Press), and was a Fulbright Scholar in Vilnius, Lithuania. She lives in Fullerton, California, with her son, Ishaan.

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