“Open you mouth,”
She said to sister Kelly,
Sitting in the high chair,
Smelling those mashed turnips,
Knowing none of that
Was getting in. Continue reading “When We Were Young”
Tag: poem
If I Return To You
If I return to you, I will remember
my life before the mountain and fall,
The house I left to enter,
And the strength of your call.
If I return to you, I will linger
to smooth down your wings
With the tips of my fingers,
Until we touch the morning. Continue reading “If I Return To You”
Sea Lesson #1
There you are
deep inside,
curved legs
against shell,
visible life in death
brought to shore. Continue reading “Sea Lesson #1”
70 Years Ago Today: She Got a Diary
On June 12, 1942, Anne Frank received a diary for her thirteenth birthday. One month later, her family went into hiding.
She got a diary.
Red and white checked cover.
It was to hold a thirteen-year-old girl’s life,
Pet peeves, family outings, friends,
Movie stars, her annoying sister,
A flirtation, a hard teacher, the beauty
Of the canal water in the noonday sun. Continue reading “70 Years Ago Today: She Got a Diary”
Hidden
Under the bridge, the white morning glories
rest from the work that has circled them in,
that has pinched energy into rest, life
into death, bloom into shell of that bloom.
I run over that bridge, desire like wood
splintering from me and landing in vines.
I hear them whisper about me. I hear
everything whisper about me—the trees,
the grass, the wind. I am known like I never
was inside those walls. I am known unlike
a girl before people, in the hunting
moon, in the time of the wolf’s breath, my life
hidden in reeds titled by the current.
I appear when thorns etch my lines in dust.
–Shaun Perkins
The Return: Psyche & Eros
When I return to you, I will remember
My life before the mountain. I will soak
The western wind, the dark musky nights,
The fall, the trials, and those who played
A part all together in the river
Behind our house where I spent
Those days you were not real to me.
I will never pull them out,
Never clip them to a line to dry,
Never fold and put them away. Continue reading “The Return: Psyche & Eros”
