Salvia, Reblooming
by Jennnifer Schomburg Kanke
Speak to me of love
and I will speak to you
of salvia bought on sale,
twenty-cents, an end
of the season find. The man
said bloomless shafts
weren’t worth the dirt.
Forget to water,
leave bare on chilly nights.
Speak to me of love
and I will tell you of replanting
in terracotta pots, good drainage,
of some protected spot,
an alcove on the porch
where the winds can’t reach.
Jennifer Schomburg Kanke is a doctoral candidate at Florida State University. Her work has appeared in Pleiades, Fugue and Earth’s Daughters. Previously, she served as an editor at Quarter After Eight and is currently the Poetry Editor for The Southeast Review.
How did you arrive at the title for this piece? Not in a very sexy way I’m afraid, it’s pretty much just a description of the narrative of the poem. Of course, if I’m feeling sassy I guess I could say “I asked it what its name was,” but that feels like a bit much.
Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.
Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
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Submissions
Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again September 15, 2025. Submit here.
Upcoming
09/15 • Abbie Doll
09/22 • Karen Regen Tuero
09/29 • Amy Speace
10/06 • Jennifer Edwards
10/13 • Joseph O’Day
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10/27 • Sunmisola Odusola
11/03 • Sara Cassidy
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11/17 • Alison Colwell
11/24 • Lucy Zhang
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