Vigilance

 Cat Dixon


Tell us our constant

patrol fueled by fear

is unwarranted. Secret 

distress codes with

words, hands, eyes

begging “pluck us away

before the skin’s pierced.”

We know no is never

enough. Tell us not you—

never you. Tell us

the rest will not dare

despite the late hour,

despite this torn dress.

Yes, tell us the witnesses

will sing and shine

like angels, wingless

and blameless. The shrine

glows with candles

next to a signed prayer

book, kissed and closed.


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Cat Dixon (she/her) is the author of Eva and Too Heavy to Carry (Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2016, 2014) and the chapbook, Table for Two (Poet's Haven, 2019). Recent poems have appeared in LandLocked, Anti-Heroin Chic, and Abyss & Apex. She is a poetry editor at The Good Life Review.

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