Cargo

Photo by Johannes Plenio via Unsplash

Coming out of hibernation with more good news! My chapbook a woman made entirely of air will be coming out by the end of this year with the delightful Dancing Girl Press, “an imprint devoted to publishing innovative writing by women authors in delectable handmade editions”! I’m so happy that these poems dedicated to my mother have found such an amazing home. The poem below opens the book and was first published by Tinderbox Poetry Journal in the fall of 2020.

Cargo

I
   tell
the leaf
it deserves
a          poem
and        it nods
in        agreement.
I ask           the rain
to keep            falling
for me                  and it
shatters            at my feet.      
The wind         impregnates
me                      with longing.               
Above,        that        ridiculous           
blue        swallows me,          too.

   What
       am I
   if not

        a boat                  made of flesh,
carrying words               from one
        shore       of a presence
             to another?

First published in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Volume 6, Issue 5, Fall 2020