Miriam N. Kotzin
Marital
I.
A poet for a husband? Daughter,
an empty purse makes a lumpy mattress.
The bride knows but one truth:
sleepless nights.
Her mouth is full—
flattery and kisses
fill the rice bowl.
Every day he gives her a new poem:
he fills their kitchen with stars—
sky black as the empty iron pot.
II.
This is her poem:
water just boiled
two white porcelain cups.
This is her poem:
weak tea
still light trembles
at his footsteps
This is her poem:
Even now I know only one truth.
This is her poem:
long nights
trembling light
my only poem.
Indigo
All those years you were stuck
on fast forward. Impatient.
You wouldn’t wait for anything.
(You wouldn’t wait for me.)
You should have known how every
day the sun masters a slow-mo dive
into each waiting lake, and, just
before stars, the sky strips the lake
of all its glimmering frills.
Every day, every blessed day.
You were in such a bloody rush.
With Attribution
Fog, of course, belongs
to Sandburg. And Wordsworth
could lay claim to clouds,
especially lonely clouds.
Rain’s gone to Millay,
or, in a loving mood, to
cummings.
Nevertheless,
all day I’ve been listening to
this rain as it simmers
on our metal sills.
The wind
(Shelley, to be sure,
or, fairly, Anon.) is garrulous
in the leaves.
I cede the grass
to Whitman. Near Frost’s woodpile,
Kumin’s fat groundhog surveys
our garden’s last bounty,
then turns away at leisure.
He’ll be dead and decaying soon
enough (Eberhart, et al.), just
like the rest of us.
Miriam N. Kotzin is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently, Debris Field (David Robert Books 2017). Her collection of short fiction, Country Music (Spuyten Duyvil Press 2017), joins a novel, The Real Deal (Brick House Press 2012), and a collection of flash fiction, Just Desserts (Star Cloud Press 2010). Her fiction and poetry have been published in anthologies and numerous periodicals such as Shenandoah, Boulevard, SmokeLong Quarterly, Eclectica, Mezzo Cammin, Offcourse, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. She teaches creative writing and literature at Drexel University.