Nancy Anne Miller
A History in Furniture
An entire empire hangs in the chintz curtain,
Ming jars and roses suspended in a yellow
hue, look as if they will never fall.
Three tropical bird prints above my bed,
like small decorative hand pistols in a drawer.
The lamp is a vase with flowers on the outside,
shade, a dowdy garden tea party hat,
light steams below in strands of fair hair.
The Chippendale chest with brass
handles: mouths, tell silence is golden,
where dark bodies of trees fell in forests
to build chairs wing tipped as thrones,
the seated about to ascend. The ceiling
fan blade, a cricketer’s bat, sends the sun’s ball away, away in every possible direction.
Bermudian poet Nancy Anne Miller has three poetry collections forthcoming: Somersault (Guernica Editions), Because There Was No Sea (Anaphora Literary Press), and Immigrant’s Autumn (Aldrich Press). Water Logged is forthcoming from Aldrich Press 2106 and Star Map is forthcoming from Future Cycle Press 2016. She is a MacDowell Fellow published in Edinburgh Review, Agenda, Magma, New Welsh Review, The Fiddlehead, The Dalhousie Review, The Moth, The Caribbean Writer, Poetry Salzburg Review and Journal of Postcolonial Writing among others.