On a sunny day in Palermo I sit in the archive
And I pull on
the seventeenth-century
with a string. I open
a bundle of documents.
The cord is frayed
and fragile,
but I marvel
at its persistence.
How it has held
these accounts
together for longer
than I would
have thought fabric
could. Certainly,
much longer than I
will be held together.
Much longer than I
will be leather bound.
Ray Ball, PhD, is a history professor, poet, and editor. She is the author of two history books and has a chapbook of poems forthcoming with Louisiana Literature Press. Her creative work has recently appeared in Coffin Bell, Ellipsis Zine, Moria, and UCity Review and has been nominated for Best of the Net and Pushcart. You can find her hiking and running Alaska’s trails, researching in the Spanish and Italian archives, or on Twitter @ProfessorBall
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