Wendy Schermer

She Lost Touch with Herself

She lost touch with herself,
forgot the slap
of her bare feet
on the packed dirt
of a country road,
the smell of  her armpits
in August heat
and the rhythmic swish
of horses’ tails
as they shooed away flies.

She forgot the taste
of a long blade of grass
hanging from the side
of her mouth,
the smell of honeysuckle
by a wooden fence
and the sound of cows
being milked.

She can no longer recall
recklessly crossing a stream
rock by rock by rock,
collecting lightning bugs
after dark,
lifting her skirt
to let the wind caress her bare legs
or lying awake at night,
listening to frogs
and the distant whistle
of a freight train.

Wendy Schermer was born in Detroit, grew up in Philadelphia, and is now a resident of Arden, DE, where she has lived for the past seven years. Wendy shares her home with a dog and two cats who have been great companions since her two sons became adults and made lives of their own in Philadelphia and Brooklyn, respectively. Although Wendy works full-time for the State of New Jersey’s Judiciary, her real love is writing.