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Ashley Skabar was born in 1984 and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, receiving her BA in creative writing from Ohio University. An emerging poet, she often draws on her experiences as a traveler and the reconciliation between feelings of displacement and connectedness. Skabar was a finalist in Narrative’s First Annual Poetry Contest. She lives in Anchorage, Alaska.

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The Body
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What We Learned

by Ashley Skabar
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Was never what we were supposed to:
the lilt of the living, salt’s savor.

It wasn’t the body’s bone-ripples, either,
or the sways of nurses’ crosses;
it was the truth of it all—
hunger’s chill,
the scream beneath the surface—
history’s echo tucking us back inside,
staring from the other side of the glass.


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Reader Comments

  • One of the loveliest poems I've read in a long time....
  • Beautiful, haunting, touching poem, Ashley. I am looking forward to...

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