MM's Represented Poems for 2008 Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

JANUARY SELECTION:



Time Piece by Frances Kennedy


Whoever said time heals all wounds has lied
like those who have will claim forgiveness brings
forgetting sooner. Sorrow, stripped of pride,
has little aptitude for hope that springs
eternally in hearts less slung by slings
and arrows, or with fortitude not mine.
Unreasoned passion, stemmed, stills everything
except a coiled impulse to unwind
pretending in the face of all that I’m just fine.

[Cleo_Serapis]

OCTOBER SELECTION:


The Nestling by Eisa Needham

She flinches; a featherless bird
tumbles, landing breathless.
Thoughts surge back forty years--

He arrived quietly
entwined in his lifeline,
hurriedly wrapped
in a hospital blanket.
Voices were hushed
as they rushed him away.

They thought it humane
to shroud his existence;
no whispered goodbyes.
She ached to nestle her son,
stroke his soft face and
sway him to lullabies.

One glimpse; never seen again.

Memories are tucked away in the attic:
the blue unused crib,
a hand crocheted shawl
to snuggle him in her arms.

Mother bird screeches
from a lifeless nest …

grief swoops like a vulture
tearing her insides;
tears still flow after forty years.

Wrapping the nestling
in a pink print hankie
she hums,
Rock-a-bye baby, in the tree-top
resting it in a cardboard box.

She buries it in moist earth
beneath a sycamore that cradles
the half empty nest in its arms,
scattering poppy seeds; her memorial.

When buds bloom, crumpled crimson,
she still longs to know --
if his eyes twinkled blue, reflecting her image
and where he lies now
… to place a poppy wreath.