Michael Schiavo is the author The Mad Song, and the chapbooks Ranges I (H_NGM_N Books, 2011), Ranges II (Forklift Ink, 2011), Beautiful School, 275 Ocean Avenue (Gondola Chapbooks, 2011), Dandelion (Gondola Chapbooks, 2012), Turn Loud, and War Time (Gondola Chapbooks, 2013). This poem is from Schiavo's manuscript of poems Roses, which are studies of the spheric meter, an attempt to draw the line down -- rather than across -- the page, to see what breaks and what doesn't. Roses have been published in The Awl, The Bakery, the first issue of Oversound, and the second issue of Prelude.