"A poem begins with a lump in the throat, a home-sickness or a love-sickness."
Robert Frost
Also I do not have a dog
I smile
at the neighbors
out walking
in their winter coats
"what a crazy time!"
we shout against the wind
smiling
until our teeth hurt
​
I do not see their faces
bundled up
against the cold
​
but soon I know them
by their dogs.
​
​
Things I carry
Once I sat and looked
around my house
and noticed
always its failings—
the mismatched furniture
people
gave to me, yesterday’s messes
still left
to straighten.
And then I looked
again one day
when the world seemed hard
when the news was bad—
and I saw the worn place
on the couch,
all the old familiar,
and I was glad.
Quarantined
spring comes regardless
on the way to the mailbox, I did not notice the pink-white ghost buds
unfolding on branches not yet green, I was breathing fine but my mind
drowned in sickness, in bad news,
my lungs heaved with sadness
in the driveway, the April afternoon was cold
but still my children turned their faces to the sun
my husband took a photo of a blue jay resting in the tree outside and sent it to me
I know how you love birds
on the way to the mailbox, I heard the wind chimes next door offer a tentative hello
and I thought maybe it was time
for me to open just a little
my window and my heart again.
Morocco
The train is rumbling, rumbling
and we are stumbling, stumbling
down sultry gas lit halls
fingers skimming blue cardboard walls.
It’s twenty seven drunken paces
fasten the door with your shoelaces
first class to Marrakech
two hundred miles douse my flesh.
Kisses seasoned like a street bazaar
voices simmer from the dining car
my hand cups your mouth
Casablanca headed south.
And soon I am not your lover
not a wife or someone’s mother
I am all the land your hands can see
and the little hills you climb inside of me.
The curtains swell, blankets of ocean foam
native tongues from the hall will drown my moan
the open window speaks of country left to roam,
but to go with you is to always be home.
Darling, to go with you is to always be home.