Palm Reading Detroit

Excerpt
Written By Diane DeCillis

Poem excerpt from When the Heart Needs a Stunt Double by Diane Decillis by permission of Wayne State University Press. © 2021 by Diane DeCillis.

Michigan’s forested hand,

verdant fingertips,

pines on periphery,

Montmorency cherry

cabin and thicket,

walleye, antlers

lighthouse and dune

Traverse City moon

tempers the lake

its glinting shimmer

won’t smooth

this jagged line,

my restless shores.

Pour me a Stroh’s,

I’m heading back

to Detroit, beaux arts

and deco, falcon

and ledge, tunnel

and bridge. Give me

Brown-Bomber Fist,

spoke and hub,

river and strait,

this rhythmic

skyline

read—love,

lifeline, home.

Diane DeCillis

Diane DeCillis is the author of Strings Attached (Wayne State University Press, 2014), winner of the Michigan Notable Book Award and the 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Award and finalist for the Forward INDIES Award. Her poems, stories, and essays have appeared in numerous journals.

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