Poet Lisa Russ Spaar reads "St. Protagonist," the opening poem from her collection Vanitas, Rough, published in December by Persea Books.
St. Protagonist
It's bedtime. Tell me a story
as the leaves fly
again, even as we love them
& cannot see them.
Espouser, hero, night errant—
whose wont is to belaud,
chant, cheer, adore
what is before you:
teach me that. The part
in the lady's long dark hair.
The part where that does not matter.
And the ending, sobbed through,
where the improbable becomes
not true, but nonetheless believed.
Reprinted with permission by Persea Books, from Vanitas, Rough, by Lisa Russ Spaar. Copyright © 2012 by Lisa Russ Spaar.
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