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SAMANTHA RICE

A Hole Bridged Between the Loose Sky


If there is beauty in pain, then I have felt it.
My father’s hands guiding me

forward into the midnight light, a figure showing me 
my silhouette could run like a river if I just 

allowed it. And I did, I ran towards
anything, and everything, until my body

cast into fire and I was alone there waiting 
for my own life. I don’t have much to offer 

in this life, so I have given men, the only 
thing that is singing inside me. Music. 

And they have listened and sat beside me; 
older, younger, wiser and more tender, with 

enough stars to keep my limbs from 
breaking. Always there was a beginning

and an end and I went and I came back. 
And I came back to the original hole bridged 

between the loose sky; crawled deep 
back into the hole my father created, 

staying there until the storm passed. 
And was over. 



220 The Paris-American
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Samantha Rice’s previous poems have appeared in Graffiti and Touchstone, and she has been awarded the 2016 Robert O’Clair Poetry Award, and the Scholastic Writing Award, Silver Key for a full-length play, among other honors.

Upcoming poet:
Forrest Gander
  The Paris-American
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