* — December 1, 2022
JoAnna Novak — Scholastica

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I keep mistaking saints for satellites, fainting
at the scent of self-
 
immolation. Would you rise above
fatigue if I fed your animal
 
my tomb? The camel is used
by man in Asia, parts, and North
 
Africa. Yak, water buffalo,
mule, me. So I lay down
 
this life. Some dogs make it
possible to travel fast
 
over snow. When this fortress would
cast another to her knees,
 
perfection having failed.
In good health, the elephant
 
knows no heaviness. Next chapter:
Lunch: dry bread.
 

Originally published in No Tokens Issue No. 10. View full issue & more.
*
JoAnna Novak‘s third book of poetry, New Life, was published in 2021. She is the author of Meaningful Work: Stories, winner of the 2020 Ronald Sukenick Prize for Innovative Fiction, and the novel I Must Have You. Her debut memoir Contradiction Days is forthcoming from Catapult Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker online, The Paris Review, and other publications. She is a founding editor of Tammy, a literary journal and chapbook press.