June 2026

if I draw you down 
          the river of my body 
                through the sanguine crown 

                                                                             will you take the first
                                                                  breath, and tell me  
                                                                              your name? 

           sharp light demands you
                       be named, and while I built you 
           cell to blood to bone 


I have given the name  
            of the moon to the fox  
                        who fell to earth 


I named the sunlight 
                        only to see it swallowed 
             in foul soot by night 


                                                if my voice turns names  
                                                          to ash, then keep my water  
                                                in your throat and sing me 
                                                                                     your sea-name.

jessamyn-fairfield
Jessamyn Fairfield

Jessamyn Fairfield is a poet, scientist, and performer based in Galway whose poems have previously appeared in Crannóg, Consilience, and Poetry Ireland Review. She has been nominated for the Pushcart prize, and longlisted for the Fish Poetry Prize and the Plough Prize.

More work by Jessamyn Fairfield

1968 - 2026

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