EIGHT FOR THE YEAR
I understand the summer world.
I understand the day ghosts and the night ghosts.
I am warmed by the flagstone beneath me.
I am the ideal temperature.
I understand the cat who listens to the voles.
I understand the fastness of the road, the road itself.
I am soundly inside myself.
I am soundly inside.
Rachel Cloud Adams is a writer, editor, and visual artist living in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the founder/editor of the journal and small press Lines + Stars and the editor at a child welfare-focused advocacy association. Her poems, fiction, and artwork have appeared in The North American Review, The Hopkins Review, Hobart, Quail Bell, Big Muddy, Salamander, Cagibi, The Conium Review, Carousel, Memoir, Arkana, and elsewhere. She is the author of the poetry chapbooks What is Heard (Red Bird, 2013), Sleeper (Flutter Press, 2015), and Space and Road (Semiperfect Press, 2019); her full-length work, The Resting Mound, the Field, and the Wheel, currently is making the rounds. She received her MA in writing from the Johns Hopkins University.