Catherine Fletcher

NIGHT WATCH

Sulfur strike                owl light
flickers                        

A quick silver apparition
: a girl      slides across 

a teapot’s patina                     vitrine panes

slips into                    
dis / integrates into 

Catch her                                     breath  

Is she my 

Fragrance of
loss

feverish 
fingertips press against 

glass, looking for 

Who is she 
a clew

turning             merging into         resounding
melody
floating           from a nearby room 

Yet she remains 
a universe
out of                   tune             

Sing to me so I might dream again

she yearns, hanging
on notes                         of dead verbena  
remnants
of innocence

ex / haling into 

Who is
the spectre
the girl 

who
radiates 
dark matters

searches for
miracles          
in empty closets

who 
performs 
this vigil          

following whispers 

Re / harmonize me  
                                        
footfalls           
broken strings.  

Catherine Fletcher is a poet and playwright. Recent work has appeared in The Hopper, Kissing Dynamite, Hopkins Review, Burning House Press, and the concert series Concept Lab. She was a TWP Science and Religion Fellow at Arizona State University from 2016-18. She also served as Director of Poetry Programs at the New York-based organization City Lore and Managing Director of the Los Angeles-based ensemble The Ghost Road Company. She lives in Virginia, USA.