by Karen George

             ~ After Mary Oliver's "Sand Dabs, Four"

Where does your breath go when you lose it? When it gets knocked out of you?

Try not to laugh at accidents.

Beneath trees, gaze up to swell your lungs, elate your heart.

Why is it you adore paisley and parsley?

Wheels of color and spirals fuel you.

Why did it take so long to fathom the sky?

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Karen George is the author of five chapbooks, and two poetry collections from Dos Madres Press, Swim Your Way Back (2014) and A Map and One Year (2018). My work has appeared or is forthcoming in Adirondack Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Naugatuck River Review, Sliver of Stone, and Still: The Journal. She reviews poetry and interviews poets at Poetry Matters, and is the co-founder and fiction editor of the online journal, Waypoints.