Stephanie Ellis Schlaifer
Managing Editor Lisa Ampleman: In this poem—from her series imagining different cabinet members who preside over particular parts of the pysche—Stephanie Ellis Schlaifer scrutinizes the challenges of speech, in particular where our words come from. In spare lines, carefully lineated, we see the results of a divine gift of fire: Not so much “let there be light.” More like Midas’s touch. Because the poem speaks from a place of allegory, we can imagine the different sites of admonition: against God, against political foes, against friends and family, against even ourselves.
To hear Stephanie read the poem, click below:
From the Minister of the Cabinet of Admonition
God gave you fire
but told you to be careful
when you used it
You could use it whenever you wanted
but you could never be
careful enough
You resented god every time
a flame coiled out of your mouth
with a mouth of its own
God is always playing tricks
you said or the fire said
You were never sure which
Stephanie Ellis Schlaifer is a poet and installation artist in St. Louis. She is the author of Cleavemark (BOAAT Press, 2016), and her work has appeared in Best New Poets, Georgia Review, Harvard Review, AGNI, and elsewhere. Her latest collaboration with Cheryl Wassenaar opens this fall at the Des Lee Gallery. See more at her website.
For more miCRo pieces, CLICK HERE.
