{"id":2611,"date":"2026-04-23T08:39:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thespectaclstg.wpengine.com\/?p=2611"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:09:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T17:09:19","slug":"two-poems-by-emma-aylor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/?p=2611","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems by Emma Aylor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Weeks Before the Surgery<\/strong><\/p>\n

 xx<\/span>    I think of anything else I can
\nwith some success, but when the pain (question<\/p>\n

x x<\/span>    for which the procedure may be an answer)
\nintrudes as I hike my daily miles<\/p>\n

xx<\/span>     or carry bags from the car, the subject
\nis forced on me, presenting as presence<\/p>\n

xx<\/span>     that is, too, all question: I don\u2019t know my life
\nafter, nor during the minutes or hours<\/p>\n

xx<\/span>     they\u2019ll punch circles in my abdomen
\nby which to see. It helps to consider ancient surgeries<\/p>\n

xx<\/span>     from which a patient might return\u2014holes
\nin their skull, say\u2014altered, honored, owning<\/p>\n

xx<\/span>     another sight, wearing the pieces. Could be I\u2019ll wake
\nfrom my strange sleep with a knowledge<\/p>\n

 xx<\/span>    inexpressible in language: imagine, portrait of changed
\nwoman with (god willing) diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\n

Mercy<\/strong><\/p>\n

after a day of pain       a quick hard storm
\na tin roof near enough              to the barn
\nsoft tips of rain              the mockingbird
\nshelters on a post under the buckled eave
\nand it\u2019s evening                     on a day of grief
\nmy womb rolled           all day like thunder
\non a day the sun made that seem wrong
\nimproper context                   for nerves to make
\nsmall bright strikes   to high ground of my hips
\nnow water dumps itself to distended earth
\nso hard it bounces                     so fast it shows
\nlike a fog                         the way it flies back up
\nnow everyone can smell ozone and feel
\npricks to all open                        inch of skin
\nthe animals now           can stand out in
\nthe storm that started              can run through
\nwhat started in me then dragged         oh
\nx<\/span>                                                       then drew<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Emma Aylor is the author of Close Red Water<\/em> (2023), winner of the Barrow Street Poetry Book Prize. Her poems have appeared in New England Review<\/em>, AGNI<\/em>, Poetry Northwest<\/em>, The Yale Review<\/em>, and elsewhere. She lives in Nacogdoches, Texas, where she is an assistant professor of creative writing at Stephen F. Austin State University.<\/p>\n

She can be found on Instagram @emmaylor and at www.emmaaylor.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It helps to consider ancient surgeries \/ from which a patient might return …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[110],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}