Zoë Ryder White

[The dream says to review the manuscript]

The dream says to review the manuscript. 
Says to preserve that which stings and to excise 
that which suffocates.  The wasp can stay: 
it’s cold outside, their paper home has burst 
below the tree. Of the limited but several 
gallantries within your power, one is to offer
this small safety. You can stay in the dream, 
you tell the wasp. When the nest fell, 
it broke apart – embarrassing for the wasps,  
revealed in all their fervor. Wasp, I feel you, 
you say. You may rest a while on my headboard, 
you tell the one whose antennae tremble. 
In this way you invite danger. 
The dream assures you its amplitude 
is more than vast enough to encompass 
tenderness such as this.

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