Christina Davis’s ‘Vigil Strange’
From the LARB Quarterly no 49: ‘Traffic,’ a new poem by Christina Davis, dedicated to John H. Davis (1938–2006).
By Christina DavisAugust 10, 2026

Did you know LARB is a reader-supported nonprofit?
LARB publishes daily without a paywall as part of our mission to make rigorous, incisive, and engaging writing on every aspect of literature, culture, and the arts freely accessible to the public. Help us continue this work with your tax-deductible donation today!
This poem is a preview of the LARB Quarterly, no. 49: Traffic. Become a member for more fiction, essays, criticism, poetry, and art from this issue—plus the next four issues of the Quarterly in print.
¤
Vigil Strange
When you died, I lifted your right eyelid, when no one saw.
The irrevocable
Openness—
as though a road headed toward me had ended in me,
demolishing the maze
of estrangements …
They have come home, again!
(Who has?) The infinite …
¤
Featured image: Richard P. Baker. Model of a Riemann Surface, Baker #411z, ca. 1930. Gift of Frances E. Baker, Smithsonian National Museum of American History (MA.211257.074). CC0, americanhistory.si.edu. Accessed August 4, 2026. Image has been cropped.
LARB Contributor
LARB Staff Recommendations
Leah Umansky’s “Ars Poetica: The Thing Is …”
Leah Umansky offers a treatise on living among nature, in a poem from LARB Quarterly no. 46: “Alien.”
Two Poems by Rickey Laurentiis
Rickey Laurentiis dissects identity and gender in two poems from LARB Quarterly no. 46: “Alien.”