Tranquil Life

Courtney Marie Andrews, from Old Monarch: Poems; “Good Virtues”

Courtney Marie Andrews, from Old Monarch: Poems; “If you are lucky”

Katie Ford, from If You Have to Go: Poems; “In the hearth”

Stephen Kuusisto, from Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability; "Letters to Borges from Estonia"

A poem titled "Prayer for Werewolves"

by Stephanie Burt.

Someone will probably love you for who you are.

If not, you'll still find friends,

friends who, given time, or given

warning. will probably gather around you, hold your hands,

and wrap you in soft coats and

blankets till the violence

inside your body ends.

Someone will probably love you for who you are,

not just for who you labor to be.

Maybe you're lost in your skin today. Maybe you're burning

and wish you could tear it all off. Please

don't. You are variously

a marvel, an athlete, a wilderness, a source of warmth

and a way to learn from fear.

When you have claws. your claws are yours, your ears

bristle and are yours; your irises

are citrine, pure, and yours. They let you see

through smog and pine thickets and into the future, where

you need no chains to feel secure,

and someone will probably love you for who you are:

then you will know each other's scents

and nuzzle or lope together. But for

now, you have friends,

who are not going anywhere. Please