Living Alone
Today in the winter patch
four strawberries, tart and
red as Christmas. The sky
at sunset, smudged with cloud,
pale gray and rose like the tissue
under the eyes of a thin-skinned woman.
On our evening rounds, the dog and I
remember to check the sky where Venus
reveals herself in toto. A flush
of light at the moon's base
permits a pencil-line of her circumference.
A rich day. And tomorrow?
Tomorrow, I will prune the rosebush,
admire its solo December bloom,
invite myself for tea.
From a high shelf
a porcelain cup; a thin coin-silver spoon
that was grandma's.
No cream. No honey,
only spicy steam from the bitter
leaves as they steep,
and the scalding amber liquid.
Joan Lindgren, San Diego
1st place winner of OWL-CA Poetry Contest
October 1993
Today in the winter patch
four strawberries, tart and
red as Christmas. The sky
at sunset, smudged with cloud,
pale gray and rose like the tissue
under the eyes of a thin-skinned woman.
On our evening rounds, the dog and I
remember to check the sky where Venus
reveals herself in toto. A flush
of light at the moon's base
permits a pencil-line of her circumference.
A rich day. And tomorrow?
Tomorrow, I will prune the rosebush,
admire its solo December bloom,
invite myself for tea.
From a high shelf
a porcelain cup; a thin coin-silver spoon
that was grandma's.
No cream. No honey,
only spicy steam from the bitter
leaves as they steep,
and the scalding amber liquid.
Joan Lindgren, San Diego
1st place winner of OWL-CA Poetry Contest
October 1993
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Child of Mine
In you, I remember
all things lived wholly
and with promise.
Rapt in listening,
by pleasure swept,
heedless in daring,
in protest unrestrained.
you've not yet submitted
to pain as your due,
nor shrunken your world
to known boundaries.
How naturally you forget
yourself, tumbling
into Other headlong!
In you, some small part at least
of my fortress crumbles.
I rush out to you
In fearful gladness,
and break with gratitude
upon your unsuspecting shore.
- Amy Gaffney
of my fortress crumbles.
I rush out to you
In fearful gladness,
and break with gratitude
upon your unsuspecting shore.
- Amy Gaffney