List of Ten Poems

Old Sleeping Bag (Revised)
Harp
Sonogram, After Amada's "Flight"
For You
Creation, After Isabel's "My Skin Absorbing"
Flu
The Watchers
You, Me
Good-Looking Friday
Sister Bowl (Revised)      

Old Sleeping Bag (Revised)

Old Sleeping Bag

Rolled, hidden beneath
My bed, an aged memory
Of my mother's childhood and mine.
This flowered fabric sleeps,
Pink daisies and
Black-eyed-susans. 

Harp

Harp

Red on black,
On white on gold,
Wood grain and harpstrings
Harmonized in my embrace.

Sonogram

Sonogram 

After Amanda Irwin's "Flight"
 

beat - the sound

of your tiny sister heart.

black and white blurs, face and feet,

teaching me how

to love you. 

For You

For You

my hands clothed
in pink glitter and paper-
cuts.

my gift of love,
and mess and sting. 

Creation

Creation
After Isabel's "My Skin Absorbing"

Your baby fingers in a pool
Of blue made wind, crushing
Pungent ooze to paper.

Wrapped in gold, your palms
Released a bird, a molten treasure.

Brown and silver spattered,
And in a corner, your
Fingerprint.  

Flu

Flu 

Three cups of ginger ale – I remain ill.
I want fresh air but feel I would collapse
Before I reached the far-off bedroom door.
Weak arms and legs make hills from my covers.
I cannot read, can only sit, sip, munch
On crackers, toast, and rice, slurp applesauce. 
Oliver Twist is read into my ear –
I’ve had enough of my own suffering. 

Out my window, college life continues
On the grounds of my new independence.
Backpacked figures tromp in whirligig snow,
Chasing down success, their own affliction,

Unconscious this same illness put me here,
Caused me to know confinement, chicken soup.