a cento

She wears it—
the ring,
the inside of a volcano,
an icy planet

the shape of a new sorrow in its deep
colors, lights, flowers, fragments of bone.
One diamond, one heart
turned magically to stone

in the chipped palms of her carbon fists,
a tiny tear between this world and that, a slit
of the universe
or doorway to the past.

Call it whatever you will—
there's afterlife. Her own body, a pillar of ash.

Credits: Toi Derricotte, C.D. Wright, Elizabeth Bishop, Risa Denenberg, Prageeta Sharma, Geoffrey G. O’Brien, Micah Ballard, Sam Hamill, Barry Ballard, Nickole Brown, Lucille Clifton, Roberto Harrison, Shara McCallum, Jennifer Chang