Nonduality by Acie Clark
Nonduality
Acie ClarkIn the spring she lives among the cattle.
In the field, her hands mark the line between
mother and calf, her arms the limit, hers
is whose life this life leaps through, her body
slick with birth, shares in the separation.
When the work is done she leaves through the gate
which is a mirror, glass and blood of what
she knew to know before she was herself.
When I dwell in the ultimate I know
I would know her in any life. Which is
every life. Which is this one. I learn to
sleep there beside the gate, in this wet grass.When you are my calf I kiss your new face.
When you are my mother I forgive you.
KEEP READING
SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in Shenandoah Literary, Spring 2025.
ABOUT ACIE CLARK
Acie Clark is a multi-genre writer from Florida and Georgia. He received his MFA from the University of Alabama where he worked for Black Warrior Review as the online editor and as a farmhand at Snows Bend Farm. A former poetry fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, he currently teaches in the Film, Theatre, and Creative Writing department at the University of Central Arkansas and as a Creative Nonfiction Instructor at Interlochen Center for the Arts. His first… (more)
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ENDNOTES
- Explore other works in pursuit of: motherhood • forgiveness • rebirth • Or browse the index
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