in response to Deborah Digges’s “The Wind Blows Through the Doors of My Heart”
Let the wind break through
the walls of our chests
draw out curdled breath anger
from past reckonings.
Let the wind race through the chambers
of our hearts cleanse the pathways
erase the stench of hatred
strip away the detritus of ridicule.
Let the wind eddy through us
through small openings
dissolve the particles of despair
that clog the beating heart.
Sweep them away, sweep
away passivity turgid like
the air after a tropical storm.
Pointless static gone from our brains.
Clear out the darkness in
our house of gall darkness hardened like dried
blood until we are again open-hearted
joyous vessels of infinite worth.
Jan Zlotnik Schmidt’s work has been published in many journals including Kansas Quarterly, The Alaska Quarterly Review. Her poetry volumes include We Speak in Tongues; She had this memory (the Edwin Mellen Press), Foraging for Light (Finishing Line Press), and Joseph Cornell: The Man Who Loved Sparrows, co-written with Tana Miller (Kelsay Press). Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Press Prize.