Her Spring Day Poetry Reading

for Wendy DeGroat

 

a seedling pushing through ash is worlds away

from morning’s lawnmower, neighborhood turkey vulture

 

and its shock of magnificence above children

rapt with a small ball. Her lines bring a woman’s

 

hands to life: cayenne onto the chickpeas. I ache

for the mundane but come evening, will try to woo

 

something celestial to my open and undraped window.

Deep-end blue napery on table, swaying wildflowers

 

in a funky-shaped vase. I swear I’ll make nectarine-cardamom

jam to sing into the deep bowl of morning. Before bed and dreams

 

without words, there’s the private act of serene ablutions—

lather of warm water and rose soap. Her poems.

---

Marjorie Thomsen is the author of Pretty Things Please and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Poems have been read on The Writer’s Almanac and she has received awards from the New England Poetry Club and the University of Iowa. A poem about hiking in high heels is being made into a short animated film. She recently earned certification to become a Poet-in-Residence in the Boston Public Schools.