Poetry on Medium
Three Poems
free verse poetry
Antonyms for “Dance Lesson”
The day’s weird pictures tug my heart
in unexpected
directions: the remains of a snail,
a Mustang with no
fenders or hood.
I am too sad to join them
though they say I am always welcome
to embrace the stillness,
the still broken but still here.
The Bathers #14
I didn’t vote for the sea,
but I concede
its popularity, its definitive win,
its ability
to communicate with a fourth-grade
reading level. (Less?)
People get dressed in their Sunday best
to be tested,
(to be blessed?)
but the sea doesn’t care.
They let their hair down and misplace
their lunch.
Let the uniforms be stripped of their military
insignia and donated
to the cold.
We have closets for old medals and shoes.
It’s old hat
compared to the sea
and its constant renewal.
Ode to Refraction
No scale is available
to measure the degree
to which this river
turns shin to silk.
I ask the dragonfly
unspooling across the surface.
I read magazines full of snow
that won’t melt.
I feel the chill immediately.
Earlier today,
I was up to my knees in sunlight.
I knew my name and math scores.
The trees along the shore
were a destination,
but I wouldn’t say they called
to me or gave the impression
that their presence
might help me gage distance.
