The Journeymaker to Keddar

by Rose Lemberg

Turn the land's cloth over,
the threads of my desires hang there craftless. This embroiderer
remembers well the past — I used to make
the underside of the land beautiful. Now, a jumble of regrets,
unfixable. But gift to me tonight
these threads of my yearning — the dun of your hair,
the blue of your voice, 
the white of your bleached bone buried under the sand's yellow,
blood's red clotted into vermillion. I will stitch it on my skin,
a land for both of us to hide in. These mountains,
these ancient quilted hills,
and all the rivers of me, black as the eclipsed moon.



Rose Lemberg is an immigrant from three countries. Her poetry, prose and unclassifiables have appeared in Fantasy Magazine, Goblin Fruit, Apex, Strange Horizons, Jabberwocky, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Interfictions, and other venues. She edits Stone Telling with Shweta Narayan, and has recently edited The Moment of Change, an anthology of feminist poetry, for Aqueduct Press. Rose is currently adding the last finishing touches to her epic fantasy novel Bridgers, a tale of revolution and linguistics.

When asked what creature, landmark, or place would appear in Neverland when she visited it, Rose replied as follows: "The razu beast would rise from bones and ancient carpet threads in the great desert, but I am not sure if it would speak to me."

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