Once Upon a Time According to the Promise
I was wandering a little in tree shadow
was thirsty. Water, you should come to it, said Wind
You must follow the owing toward the corner of no trace
On toward the horizon of daughter sorrows—
Companions, rescuers, measures of wood and water
Could speak of who gave you life. Listen—
The sea tumbled a stone and stole my scream.
Engraving the seashore, I met myself.
I cannot describe how odd the transformation.
Once upon a time : enough provisions, no harm.
moves in the river is only the river
To not go to the lake with you, I walk to the river
And see the rippled channel bottom
Smooth the river’s face
So begins the funny little next
and all for why
Whom did you mean me to be?
When the vertical touches the horizontal
The forest lifts its green travels
Every bone in the wind flying
Jami Macarty is the bi/queer author of The Long Now Conditions Permit, winner of the 2023 Test Site Poetry Prize and forthcoming from University of Nevada Press, 2025, The Minuses, winner of the 2020 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award, and four chapbooks, including The Whole Catastrophe (2024) and Mind of Spring, winner of the 2017 Vallum Chapbook Award. Macarty’s writing is supported by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, BC Arts Council, and the generous editors of magazines such as Colorado Review, Interim, and Volt. Macarty supports all-genre writers as an independent mentor, editor, reviewer, and creative writing teacher at Simon Fraser University. Jami Macarty lives in and learns from the arborescent desert around Tucson, Arizona, and the rain coast of Vancouver, British Columbia.