you escape
the coil-spring trap
leave the ripped
foot there
pooled in blood
you have been
touched by
the hot instrument
of pardon
see the lawn lit
by benediction
light at the end
of day silver
pond a mirror
towers of clouds
Barbara Daniels’s Talk to the Lioness was published by Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press in 2020. Her poetry has appeared in Lake Effect, Cleaver, Faultline, Small Orange, Meridian, and elsewhere. Barbara Daniels received a 2020 fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.