By Alice Notley, from Certain Magical Acts, a collection published last month by Penguin Books. Notley won the 2015 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

Fearing loss of one consciousness in coming to another,
I woke up reanimated as a familiar agent of some state,
enjoying immunity from testifying about my previous
sufferings, since I wouldn’t remember their particulars—
the 9 and 10 of swords. I live in this building. I am a caller
of souls, or words, for you never know what bit of spirit will
…