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Zone 3 Press, the literary magazine of Austin Peay State University
Volume 38, Issue 2
Volume 38, Issue 2

I Listen to You Each Night

  • By Ellen June Wright

       after Li-Young Lee

I listen to you past the sleeping hour and find comfort
    in the hush of your caged voice, and the sense

you make of this world. Nightly, you tell
    me the story about your iron-willed father.

You tell me of the well, you knew as a boy, filling
    with bodies until your parents are forced to accept

it’s time to flee. You speak of the day soldiers
    came to take your father and how your mother tried

to shield you from the sight. I become your mother
    hiding your face in the folds of my gray pleated skirt.

                                        Night after night, I listen to you

past the sleeping hour and as I fall into sleep like a well,
    I savor the sweet hush of your voice. I listen to you

past the sleeping hour and hear a kindred voice in the dark
    tell stories until your memories become my own.

About Ellen June Wright

Ellen June Wright is an African American poet with British and Caribbean roots. Her work has been published in Plume, Tar River, Missouri Review, Verse Daily, Gulf Stream, Solstice, Louisiana Literature, Leon Literary Review, North American Review, Prelude and Gulf Coast, and is forthcoming in the Cimarron Review. She’s a Cave Canem and Hurston/Wright alumna, a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee.

Zone 3 Press, the literary magazine of Austin Peay State University
Volume 38, Issue 2
Volume 38, Issue 2

I Listen to You Each Night

  • By Ellen June Wright

       after Li-Young Lee

I listen to you past the sleeping hour and find comfort
    in the hush of your caged voice, and the sense

you make of this world. Nightly, you tell
    me the story about your iron-willed father.

You tell me of the well, you knew as a boy, filling
    with bodies until your parents are forced to accept

it’s time to flee. You speak of the day soldiers
    came to take your father and how your mother tried

to shield you from the sight. I become your mother
    hiding your face in the folds of my gray pleated skirt.

                                        Night after night, I listen to you

past the sleeping hour and as I fall into sleep like a well,
    I savor the sweet hush of your voice. I listen to you

past the sleeping hour and hear a kindred voice in the dark
    tell stories until your memories become my own.

Volume 38, Issue 2
Volume 38, Issue 2

I Listen to You Each Night

  • By Ellen June Wright

       after Li-Young Lee

I listen to you past the sleeping hour and find comfort
    in the hush of your caged voice, and the sense

you make of this world. Nightly, you tell
    me the story about your iron-willed father.

You tell me of the well, you knew as a boy, filling
    with bodies until your parents are forced to accept

it’s time to flee. You speak of the day soldiers
    came to take your father and how your mother tried

to shield you from the sight. I become your mother
    hiding your face in the folds of my gray pleated skirt.

                                        Night after night, I listen to you

past the sleeping hour and as I fall into sleep like a well,
    I savor the sweet hush of your voice. I listen to you

past the sleeping hour and hear a kindred voice in the dark
    tell stories until your memories become my own.

About Ellen June Wright

Ellen June Wright is an African American poet with British and Caribbean roots. Her work has been published in Plume, Tar River, Missouri Review, Verse Daily, Gulf Stream, Solstice, Louisiana Literature, Leon Literary Review, North American Review, Prelude and Gulf Coast, and is forthcoming in the Cimarron Review. She’s a Cave Canem and Hurston/Wright alumna, a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee.

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