Everything Is Clear

a found poem: Virginia Woolf’s The Waves

Dancing alone, the ground slapping
against my soles

my blood billowing and rippling in me
my breath all quickness

I jump and shut my eyes and my pulse
seems to leap—it drums—

and I see this universe: the grass
the trees, my ribs

my very person. I am bright
a red gilt flower

and nothing is staid
nothing is settled.

I feel singled out—summoned
to triumph.

Nazifa Islam grew up in Novi, Michigan. Her poems have appeared in Boston Review, Gulf Coast, The Account, and Beloit Poetry Journal among other publications, and her poetry collection Searching for a Pulse (2013) was released by Whitepoint Press. She earned her MFA at Oregon State University. You can find her @nafoopal.

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