Blessing for the Inconsolable
by Jessie Van Eerden

an essay from the collection Yoke & Feather published by Dzanc Books | November 19, 2024

May you remember your suffering the way hair remembers its braid after a long night wet upon the pillow, a night with windows open and pollen dusting down and also moths, the hair having been plaited after a swim in the river when the tributaries had been high from spring rains and the sediment rich, such that, in the morning, when another comes bedside with a brush, there is only a faint smell of river and the dry, soft waves of hair. Which is to say, may sorrow be softened by enough forgetfulness. Hold the brushed-out leaf bits and driftwood bark in your hands in this wide room, unto the fireplace clean and large, having yielded to the bats threading in and out of its chimney, and unto the little dresser simple and the floor bare. If no succor, then sound, song­bird. Red-winged black in the tremored marsh. If no solace, then slip your hair hung forward to fall down your back in waves as you lift your face.

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Read Glassworks' Interview with Jessie vanEerden
Read Nonfiction Editor Jordan G. Avery's Review of Yoke & Feather
Follow Jessie on Instagram: @monathehound
Find out more about Jessie on her website: https://www.jessievaneerden.com