Peg Duthie

Even an Empty Life Can Hold Water

Three gates ago, my locket contained
a shred of a letter, a match, and your name
etched across the curve of a bone.

Two gates ago, I set fire to the shred.
Then a stile I stumbled into
needed mending.

Bone became nail.
The locket, a pail.
Your name is a veil I wear under my skin.

Peg Duthie is the author of Measured Extravagance (Upper Rubber Boot, 2012). There’s more about her at nashpanache.com. You can read some of her other short poems at unFold.