Sweater Weather by Cherie Hunter Day, photo by John Levy

It’s finally sweater weather so the saints can recline. They remove their heads like we remove our shoes at the end of the day. The weight of the holy is carried high in the body. Deeds have depth and breadth. It’s no wonder that they’re tapped out—what with fostering all those good intentions, compiling records of countless miracles, and promoting a life of abstinence. Maybe this is like every other beggar’s trial but a spotless reputation must be difficult to maintain. It might be easier in black and white, in polished granite or marble, instead of flesh and bone.

Cherie Hunter Day is author of the prose poem e-chapbook, Qualia (White Knuckle Press, 2017). Other award-winning poetry collections include: for Want (Ornithopter Press, 2017), apology moon (Red Moon Press, 2013), and The Horse with One Blue Eye (Snapshot Press, 2006).

John Levy’s titles include: On Its Edge, Tilted (Otata’s Bookshelf, 2018) and Oblivion, Tyrants, Crumbs (First Intensity Press, 2008). His photo collaboration with Alan Chong Lau is forthcoming from Otata’s Bookshelf & Dovadola Press in 2019.