"Yom Kippur" by Lisa Delan

Photo Credit: Dani Guitarra, obtained and licensed through Unsplash

Yom Kippur

I forgive

ask to be
forgiven
for fear and
the corporeal
ills I wind
around my
wrist

red line
between
the world and
not the world
between
blood and dust
and the loss of
everything

soft in my palm
I cup the
unutterable
prayer

---

Lisa Delan's work has been featured or is forthcoming in American Writers Review, Burningword Literary Journal, Cathexis Northwest Press, Passengers Journal, Poets Choice, The Pointed Circle, Viewless Wings, Wild Roof Journal, The Write Launch, and other literary publications. She has been nominated for a 2023 Pushcart Prize. When she is not writing poems, you can find the soprano, who records for the Pentatone label, singing art songs by American composers on texts of many of her favorite poets.