Point of Entry
A lyric meditation on the ins and outs of jump rope, conversation, and other matters large and small.
and rouThe rhythmic slapping
and rouof the rope on the ground,
and routwo girls whipping it round
and rouand round:
and ro Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief,
and roudoctor, lawyer, Indian chief.
and rouAll in together, girls.
and rouHow do you like the weather, girls?
Of course, an eager beginner should run in
exactly on the beat, for she who falters
is lost, ruled Out, shoved aside, maybe
even hit on the head by the rope
or embarrassed to be tangled in it.
Portentous perhaps. A debut of sorts.
Learning when to enter, interrupt, how to
say what and when, to whisper
The front door’s locked, but you can come
in the side. Learning when to change
your vote, raise your hand, when to allow
the lingering ship out of quarantine,
the migrants to cross over the rope
and into the fields. Where—
through hallways, hangars, customs, ports—
to place it, name it: the sentry-less entry
the boltless door.
Sarah Gordon’s Six White Horses is forthcoming from Mercer University Press, where her previous collection, The Lost Thing, also appeared in 2022. Her poems have been published in The Georgia Review, Asheville Poetry Review, Miramar, Sewanee Review, Shenandoah, Confrontation, and elsewhere.