poems

 

If

If  my heel balances between floorboards,  halved by the middle creases,  my foot will not slip into lava— no quicksand will swallow my limb— the flatness of my arch  will not coat in the pollen  fetched from the day’s  outside stepping.    If  my nail pierces my palm,  I can pretend a wasp found asylum […]

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What We Watch

Do you, too, see wings in trees? Cardinal feathers ruffle far-off branches, somewhere swaying in an outlined oak. Surrounding twigs, a stencil etch from this perspective— embers poke holes into a canopy.    Do you, too, watch shadows across your porch?  Lamp light dim, morning glow draws in charcoal lines. A backyard swing sketched from […]

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Shavuot

Ruth—look, how our garden has grown. Basil bushels in our backyard, stems entwined from weeks of nurture, rest. Leaves yawn,  roots stretch the sleep from their limbs.   Our porch, a museum of color.  Amber petals backbend, heaven-facing, crimson glints  under morning rays, emerald leaves embrace  cardinal sprouts— a celebration    we observe from our […]

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Yellow Wallpaper

The lining of my living room. Silence strips its finish,  stillness thins its shine— Confinement streaks  in tassels from ceiling tile to floorboard.   Whose jaundice fingers  reach between frays? Nails julienne the air,  wave to me.    A yellow tongue laps at the stillness, scratched and gouged and splintered,  a desperate whisper.   Eyes […]

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Structure

Our oven timer palpitates its ticks. Moments—They skip in dysfunctional time. Offbeat, their cadence—a sputtering chime. Distrust the countdown our timer depicts.   Seconds elapse, but they falter and pass.  Study the timer and measure its count.  Catalogue time in a careful account— How many ticks will this moment amass?    Routine lays waste to […]

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From the Baby Shoe Lost at the Park

Will you remember me? How my fabric held you,  my child. My strings enclosing you, soundly, protectively. Will you remember me cradling your sole, inviting your first steps  on this graveled sidewalk?   Your mother’s hands  pinched your palms,  but I balanced you upright— I nestled your weight,  the wholeness of your gravity,  and you […]

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Visitors

I’ve made friends  with the willow leaves outside my window.  Buds span from an outstretched hand— They wave to me, and we play hand games from both sides of a barrier.    They sway, between games, and I’m familiar with their movement. I’ve watched before their undulation, their careen in the breeze.    A red […]

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Variations of the Rain

            In quarantine,              we distinguish shades of morning showers.    Multi-faced rain— Each downpour, you bring a novel hue:    The white skies of misty days,  when clouds coagulate into plaster,  a lid over fogged earth. The silhouette of trees like stencil against your alabaster backdrop.    The polka-dotted summer rain, when grey splotches stain a […]

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Observations in Lockdown

No corner goes undusted.  Pace between corridors— These four walls, a palace.  Work-zone, chef’s line,  place of rest,  place of worship.    We notice new corners.  Polish them, sterilized for our pacing.    Our calves brush the edges of days.  Mornings blend as we walk from one room, and back again— a timeless holster. History […]

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On the Virus

Glitter-like. It spreads like that. Specs translucid  cling to us, our fickle strands.   Our hands outstretched, startled. Flecks splatter in our palms, and stick— invisible.    Glitter under sheets—our fate embalmed in latex. Glitter, it crusts—it smears in strokes, and glazes.   We dwindle, but move.  Apart, we persist.    Tomorrow will glisten an […]

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