Mary Ann Samyn is the author of several other collections of poetry, most recently Beauty Breaks In (New Issues Press, 2009). She teaches in the MFA program at West Virginia University.

The Boom of a Small Cannon

Engine room of the trying not to vacate.

I am equal to the courage of the world.

I am equal to the world.

These are the horizontal mysteries, a glacial pace.

Drastic measures do not stay with the symptom.

I stay with the symptom.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday—

Beauty makes this resounding in me.