Dearest S.,

If only my troubles were those of a musician. In which the grand concerto is born of method and order. One has but to accept the deliberate pulse of a metronome, a steady rising of octaves, the oscillating hand of a tuxedoed conductor. Arrangements intersect and the player is met with song. Which suggests that tenacity is not the most desirable virtue in a woman, but rather the cold precision of a well-tuned harpsichord.
Yours ever,
V.




Kristina Marie Darling is a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis. Eight chapbooks of her work have been published, among them Fevers and Clocks (March Street Press, 2006), The Traffic in Women (Dancing Girl Press, 2006), and Night Music (BlazeVOX Books, 2008). A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Kristina has also written on contemporary literature for The Boston Review, The Colorado Review, New Letters, The Literary Review, Third Coast, and other journals. Recent awards include residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Prairie Center of the Arts.