A Barrel of Stars
Stars
barrel through this
flannel night .
A million gold arrows keep
trying. But this season comes,
hat in hand,
a quilt of snow clutching
trees & ground, trapping all
the sunken steps.
As though a path
could be held easy as
the red flame of
a fox.
We are turning the burning page. All
the poems we wrote this summer
are girls jumping off the bridge into
the river, dresses blooming in the rushing
water, red, black & paisley spread out
about a bobbing truth.
Still, stars dare
reach us. Remind us
we are more than scuttle & haste.
They slip through the pane,
like the cry of the loon.
Kiss us even.
MFA candidate at Northwestern University. Other work has appeared in Foliate Oak, Melusine, Magnolia: A Journal of Women’s Socially Engaged Literature, Volume II, Quantum Poetry Magazine, OVS Magazine, Jet Fuel Review and Stirring.