Barbara Daniels

20 QUESTIONS

whose mouthfuls whose scruples 
whose soft scarf flung down 
what wishes in the old stories 

bring disaster what ship 
what role silence which of us 
still chastely zippered what 

can be built out of match sticks 
what the connection of kissing 
to midnight what stranger imperiled 

what stage of undress how soft 
a hand what floats on an eddy 
whose this transparency is this 

radiance what struggles what 
turnings what outer edges 
what trailing perfume

Barbara Daniels’s Talk to the Lioness was published by Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press in 2020. Her poetry has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review, and elsewhere. Daniels received a 2020 fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.