Magic

by Lindsay, posted in poetry 
Magic flowed a river of printed words

meandering across ivory pages

passing up through grazing finger tips and

pulsing along a bloodstream

traveling deep into lungs and then

as air molecules flowing upward and 
out 
his mouth between full lips.

Magic coursed into the space between us

as a river delta, pouring water into the sea

where I bathed in the warm current of

each magic word 
             
           he read to me.

For My Nephew

by Lindsay, posted in poetry 
You are not my own
Yet I held myself
When I held you.

Stars freckle your sky face
Freckled like your mother
That which I do not share.

Nor do I have
Your turned-up nose.

Your azure eyes
We all have.
Light on a torch
Beaming back.

Your eyes
Your mother's eyes
Your grandmother's eyes
Your great-grandmother's eyes
   (whose I still see so clearly)

The light she carried from others who said
"Bonjour" and "Au demain"
"Ferme la porte!" and "Je t'aime!"

A Cavern of Mirrors / Origami

by Lindsay, posted in poetry 
Thoughts and images fill my head but don't connect 
to the words and phrases that would 
leave my mouth and connect me to you.

So I sit, a cavern of mirrors, 
reflecting my thoughts onto myself, 
and only myself.

My arms fold against my chest and start 
the forever inward folding, 
away from you, away from what I want.

I look like an asshole when the words elude me.
My forged bravery is a sham, and 
I am now all alone in this room.

Spring II

by Lindsay, posted in poetry

I woke up on the right side of the bed this morning
With the sun shining through my eyelids
Before I even knew I was awake
And my ear angled just right
To hear the feather-winged chatter
That I so missed during the months
of wading in drifted snow
     (with my head down,
         looking for something lost,
         though I’d long forgotten what I was searching for)
 
Today I will meet everyone at their eyes
 
Though I know
Spring is a fickle lover
For this moment
I am choosing bliss

Cautionary Advice

by Lindsay, posted in poetry 
This woman always
Poured her cup
Full with fragrance:
Lavender, jasmine
And somedays
Roasting rooibos.
In passing one day
She whispered to me:
        Be careful where 
         You steep your soul.
          That boy there
           Is acrid brine.
            You don't want to
             Make yourself
              A pickle.
Photo by Artem Mizyuk on Pexels.com

Monday’s prompt on dVerse was to wrote a quadrille (a poem 44 words in length) containing the word steep or any of its forms.

Link to dVerse prompt: https://dversepoets.com/2019/01/28/quadrille-72/

Featherweight

by Lindsay, posted in poetry 
We spend our winters building hardened resistance 
Through the routine of shoulder hunching and thickening blood 
 As gradually the filtered light that shifts 
 Across wood panels and kitchen tiles
 Lingers into longer hours.
  
 Without cognizance, we let fall
Our experiences, as a dog 
Sheds its winter coat
 Throughout 
 Each houseroom.
  
 Leaving our
 Convictions as paper scraps to be 
 Swept up with toast crumbs – 
 and our tear drops 
 for mopping.
  
 Never knowing the
 Featherweight
 Of our skin
 Until it is.
  
 And we stand
 Pondering
 The swiftness of
 Transformation.
Photo by Irene Lasus on Pexels.com

This poem was written for the dVerse prompt given by Lillian on Tuesday to write a poem containing a form of the word shed. https://dversepoets.com/2019/01/22/shed-some-light-on-this-today/

The Edges of Your Jeans’ Pocket

by Lindsay, posted in poetry

You stole the shirt
from off my back
when we were seven
(when we were seven)
as we played in the field.
 
You caught a butterfly
and pushed a pin
through its head,
slowly, wings beating.
 
Then tacked it to a mat
to peer at under your
Kmart scientist’s special scope
I had said no.
(I had said no).
 
Dinner called us home at dusk.
I shrugged on my grass-stained shirt
and you crumpled the butterfly
into your jeans’ pocket.
 
Your fingers leaving mud
that dried like blood
and crusted like pus
on the edge’s of your jeans’ pocket.