After New Ambiance | Laura Carter

 Laura Carter lives in Atlanta, where she teaches and drives Uber for a living. Her previous chapbooks have been published by Dancing Girl, Greying Ghost, Ungovernable, Grey/Wildilfe, WonderRoot/Loose Change, and ShirtPocket.       Very Fine Was the Last of the Valentines   And then I just don’t know where, or how, everything happened. Listen: spokes turn as a beginning feels like what you wanted or what you didn’t want besides the cloud. Her book was all about what the sky really did look like: beautiful, untamed, something new. All I have is my lack of a tremolo, my lack of ordinary cellos. My last valentine was written for you. It was almost like autumn. It was almost like September, a coral clasp of something hiding. But I am not worried. Somewhere, people fear skies because they are made of old water. There are times I count myself among the one who cannot go back to that ocean of analogy, where a woman makes what peace she can with the wrong thing, old criminals, a sad wish.