Maroon by Laura Rodley

 

Image provided by Laura Rodley

Maroon

In cranberry bogs, berries emerge as

green dots of life, swell into maroon berries

like fields of heather in Scotland,

the maroon resting, muted, swelling until

September, when the fields are flooded

and cranberries rise to the top,

necklaces of vitamin C. Along 6A

in Sandwich, a pair of regal swans

swim on the reservoir that floods

the fields, undisturbed by the back-to-back

traffic. They dip their heads to each

other, form a heart, mated for life

as they are. Where do they go

when the gates are released

and the reservoir floods the bogs?

© Laura Rodley

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Laura Rodley

Pushcart Prize winner Laura Rodley's latest books are Turn Left at Normal by Big Table Press, Counter Point by Prolific Press, and Ribbons and Moths Poems for Children, winner of the Children's Nonfiction International Book Award and medalist for the Moonbeam Book Award for Children's Poetry. 

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First Night by Laura Rodley

 

Cup of Couple

First Night

Oxygen whistling, pumping moist air

to a cup clasped over my husband’s mouth,

monitors beeping, flashing his vital signs,

an IV taped to his wrist slowly pumping saline

into his veins, in a private room on

the critical cardiac care unit,

one nurse to every two patients.

Just this noon, surgeons inserted

a stent to open his blocked

left descending artery, a heart attack

often referred to as a widow-maker.

It’s two in the morning, and I’m holding

an emesis basin below his mouth

as he retches. The night nurse, Nancy,

enters, says, “The doctor left an order

for an anti-emetic, but let’s see

how he does. His body is adjusting

to the medicine, and the after-

affects of anesthesia.” She goes out,

returns with a heated half-blanket

that she lays down over him,

covering his waist to feet.

“He’ll love that,” I say. I must have sighed

because she offers, “I can get you one.”

“Really? Yes, please.” She returns

with a heated blanket, wraps it around

my shoulders, sets the blanket in place

as she squeezes my shoulders from behind

as my hands are full, holding the basin.

“Thank you,” I say, “All better now.”

She leaves to attend to her other patient.

© Laura Rodley

Enjoy more posts by Laura Rodley HERE.

Laura Rodley

Pushcart Prize winner Laura Rodley's latest books are Turn Left at Normal by Big Table Press, Counter Point by Prolific Press, and Ribbons and Moths Poems for Children, winner of the Children's Nonfiction International Book Award and medalist for the Moonbeam Book Award for Children's Poetry. 

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The Bridge by Laura Rodley

 

Clément Proust

The Bridge

Mike’s long fingers moved fast as fingerlings

zooming through tidal waters

just a little up and back

as though caught in waves,

landing on notes from his bagpipe

that zoomed into highland heather,

his long Talmudic beard

not catching on the bagpipes

bladder nor on the keys

his hair shorn as would be

the sheep that nibble the fields.

It was his 21st anniversary

but his wife Fiona must wait,

he’s playing with his band

adoring crowds his date

band members tapping boots,

then tall whimsical guitarist sings

the song “Leaving Indiana,”

laying down more steps

on the curved bridge

covering the Atlantic

about a couple returning to Scotland

as were so many others in that room

going back to their homeland

to thatch-covered houses,

burning peat, air difficult to breathe in,

so cold, only the tempo,

the lament of the bagpipe,

keeps you going, nourishment

for the blood just as much as supper.

© Laura Rodley

Enjoy more posts by Laura Rodley HERE.

Laura Rodley

Pushcart Prize winner Laura Rodley's latest books are Turn Left at Normal by Big Table Press, Counter Point by Prolific Press, and Ribbons and Moths Poems for Children, winner of the Children's Nonfiction International Book Award and medalist for the Moonbeam Book Award for Children's Poetry. 

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Hammer and Nail by Laura Rodley

 

Tom Fisk

Hammer and Nail 

Crossing the Mississippi in A minor,

just a short chord, a minor string, 

one of the tributaries leading 

to the Mississippi in A major,

the wide treble, the bridges

that span her operatic girth,

so many men girding her loins,

straightening the whalebone steel, 

the concrete of her corset’s stays, 

so many men suspended on planks 

held only by ropes and prayer  

hammering their dreams into

the steel and wood bridge’s sides,

pressing their hands against

the bridge’s concrete back,

leaving no handprints,

just the embodied whole

of the mighty bridge

corseting the Mississippi,

the men’s dreams of returning

to their homeland, now pieces of confetti. 

© Laura Rodley

Enjoy more posts by Laura Rodley HERE.

Laura Rodley

Pushcart Prize winner Laura Rodley's latest books are Turn Left at Normal by Big Table Press, Counter Point by Prolific Press, and Ribbons and Moths Poems for Children, winner of the Children's Nonfiction International Book Award and medalist for the Moonbeam Book Award for Children's Poetry. 

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Soft Soled Shoes by Laura Rodley

Dobromir Dobrev

Soft Soled Shoes

 

Tripping on the edges of the afterlife

I’ve already begun to live,

clear waves foaming at my feet,

having died and been reborn

here in this body on this earth

several times, leaving,

then returning, wearing

clouds as a taste of the afterlife

I’m already steeped in,

the body not a shell,

the body breathing in the moisture

of the clouds which are the heaven

I’m steeped in.

Remember, I won’t forget.

I won’t forget.

© Laura Rodley

Enjoy more posts by Laura Rodley HERE.

Laura Rodley

Pushcart Prize winner Laura Rodley's latest books are Turn Left at Normal by Big Table Press, Counter Point by Prolific Press, and Ribbons and Moths Poems for Children, winner of the Children's Nonfiction International Book Award and medalist for the Moonbeam Book Award for Children's Poetry. 

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Rendering by Laura Rodley

Olga Kovalski

Rendering

The fruit of elderberries

condensed into an elixir has healed me,

so many berries, pearls of antioxidants,

how many berries went into each spoonful

I swallow. Every time I waited

for our elderberries to ripen, the birds

got there first. Here in my spoon,

someone else has done the gathering,

deep indigo, royal purple,

I swallow forgiveness,

the ripening of fruit, the sun.

© Laura Rodley

Enjoy more posts by Laura Rodley HERE.

Laura Rodley

Pushcart Prize winner Laura Rodley's latest books are Turn Left at Normal by Big Table Press, Counter Point by Prolific Press, and Ribbons and Moths Poems for Children, winner of the Children's Nonfiction International Book Award and medalist for the Moonbeam Book Award for Children's Poetry. 

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San Felipe by Laura Rodley

 

Andre Moura

San Felipe 

 

Inside San Felipe church

there was a funeral service occurring

so I could not linger

the way I wished,

and the holy water canister was dry 

so I crossed my hands in prayer

and bowed once, seeking moisture,

which was all outside, as it had

rained the night before,

a blessing in reverse

to seal the cracks in the soil. 

© Laura Rodley

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Laura Rodley

Pushcart Prize winner Laura Rodley's latest books are Turn Left at Normal by Big Table Press, Counter Point by Prolific Press, and Ribbons and Moths Poems for Children, winner of the Children's Nonfiction International Book Award and medalist for the Moonbeam Book Award for Children's Poetry. 

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Hallowed Ground by Laura Rodley

 

Jill Wellington

Hallowed Ground 

 

She lifts her arms to the unbending sky

seeking light, edged out by older trees,

the beech lifts back her head,

swallows the air; crowded out,

her two arms stretch to caress 

the clouds, leafed out or bare,

and there she stands, day in, day out,

even though a surplus branch

fell across the path and woodpeckers

feasted at the wound. She holds 

for me what I cannot, patience, 

unquestioning gratitude, the mouths

of her leaves open, her roots thirsty.   

© Laura Rodley

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Laura Rodley

Pushcart Prize winner Laura Rodley's latest books are Turn Left at Normal by Big Table Press, Counter Point by Prolific Press, and Ribbons and Moths Poems for Children, winner of the Children's Nonfiction International Book Award and medalist for the Moonbeam Book Award for Children's Poetry. 

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Embodied by Laura Rodley

Madison Oren

Embodied 

Smooth as the beech bark, 

cool to the touch, easy to caress,

slight ripples of wear, small scars,

his branches reaching out thin 

and strong, his buds so full of spring,

leaves ready to fling open, but not yet.

Not sharply serrated, two inches deep

hunks of bark waiting to be broken off

protecting the heart of the maple and white ash;

even the sycamore mirrors 

his smoothness, but for the patches

where its bark is lighter, as though

peeled away from sunburn and healed, 

the sycamore casting spiky fruit 

to protect itself, defend its young.

Not thinly lined up the trunk like 

young striped maple, yet as uneffacing,

patient, like birch bending backward with the force

of the wind when larger trees like the oak tremble. 

His skin encasing a living breathing

body that can walk on ground 

while the beech, oak, ash, and maple cannot. 

He can walk above the fingers of their roots

to carry their taproots inside him,

nourished by airborne rhizomes unseen.

© Laura Rodley

Enjoy more posts by Laura Rodley HERE.

Laura Rodley

Pushcart Prize winner Laura Rodley's latest books are Turn Left at Normal by Big Table Press, Counter Point by Prolific Press, and Ribbons and Moths Poems for Children, winner of the Children's Nonfiction International Book Award and medalist for the Moonbeam Book Award for Children's Poetry. 

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