Misfit hood a sister
to the hornets’ grey mâché,
gummed seam
undid, air stiff
with ceremony, sphere
of the conjugal bed.
No sting
to this girl. She’s doll
all through, effusions of plume,
curl, sault, swoon—
plurals spun unto
chilly readers.
Belles lettres
of these acres, poignant
as brides flown
by wagon from Slovene lakes.
Excerpt of Heaven
for the flies and swine.
Paula Bohince is the author of three collections: Swallows and Waves (Sarabande Books, 2016), The Children (Sarabande, 2012), and Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods (Sarabande, 2008). Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, AGNI,The Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. She has been a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholar. She lives in Pennsylvania. (updated 9/2019)
Her AGNI poem “The Fly” was chosen for The Best New Poets 2005. Paula briefly served as poetry editor of AGNI in fall 2019.