Place to Place
Things get rearranged
but not replaced.
Old bulbs piled
in a landfill recall
their idea of light.
You color your hair
over another color
only to see it return.
Under 18 layers of paint
this wall is still plaster
bare and thirsty.
We wait for age
to bring its promise of calm.
The pond will settle.
The field will turn to forest.
Beneath the trees
the worms still chew
through the bones of mammoths,
and a great magnet
holds our feet to the same ground.
In Ionia Heraclitus dreamt
of a million different rivers,
but here the rain carries water
from north Africa
to flood our pond.
We wait for one thing
to turn into another forever.
We sweep the floors,
clean the windows
to see clearly
through to the yard,
and yet, my love
we are still here
like two cherished portraits
moved from place to place
in the same house,
the same expressions
on their faces
staring at different rooms.
A Pennsylvania native, I live in Montgomery County and make my living as a home technology writer, though I spend as much time as possible away from high-tech things. My poems have appeared in The Literary Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Cortland Review, Wisconsin Review, Blueline and others. In 2010 I was named the Montgomery County Poet Laureate by Robert Bly. My book The Trouble with Rivers (Foothills Publishing) was published in 2012. I run the Montco Wordshop, teach poetry writing at Philadelphia’s Musehouse and blog at poetcore.com. |
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