Sunday, May 17, 2026

the afterlife of silence

you imagined yourself a mother
as you leaned into the future
then you wake up dreaming
and walking toward yourself

at dusk, stars start like beacons
to show us a new underworld
at emergent touch, birds rise 
in the dawn like smoke signals 

one sadness sparks another 
as devotion returns slowly 
in careful curls like a seared
page... tell me I won't forget
how I know something now
 & hold it secret in my belly 
________
Pic: Summer anemones. Radiology Gardens with L.

1 comment:

Nance said...

This has such a mystical tone about it. The metaphor of devotion in the last stanza is so well-crafted. The alliteration of "careful curls" --the hard C sound followed by the smooth R's--actually seems to make the reader create those very things as they read the words. Beautiful!

present

these evenings: concerts, movies, friends open beach, live oaks, flowers spilling bells with no alarms the cherry tree dropping shade to mak...