Poems / July 30, 2024

Witch

Rae Armantrout

“I’m shrinking,” I shrieked,
meaning aging,
nearing death

because I thought that to pretend
I was the witch
In The Wizard of Oz

was funny
and would thus communicate

something
if not exactly my feelings.


*

Cousin Rust,
with your look of blood
and sunset,

I’m almost in love
with the lace you’ve made
of metal

Rae Armantrout

Rae Armantrout is a professor of writing and literature at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of several books of poetry, most recently Money Shot (2011) and Versed (2009), winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Photo credit: AP Photo/Denis Poroy

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