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Tissue Paper, Bottom of the Box
Mary Mercier


This bird flies every year from pole to pole.
Of immense proportions, this feat of his,
but a tale he has no need to tell.

Some stories are large outside but so small
within that we can keep them in a pocket.
And we will, if we are wise, keep one at least

for our own heart’s eye. A story we can bring out
every now and then like a folded map,
its soft face creased with time.

Maybe treasure once, or mystery, or worse,
but gentled now into compost
by the accumulated years.



Writing from her home in Wisconsin, Mary Mercier finds inspiration in the deep and wild pockets of nature. Her latest collection of poems,
Five Reports of Fugitive Dust, was published in spring by Meadowlark Press.

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