Recently, a few of my poems have been accepted for publication.
Here’s the first one to appear, Chores Undone. This poem was published in a journal for mothers, Mothers Always Write. My friend Natalie Solmer told me about this publication, which you’ll no longer find online. Here’s to mothers and our hopeful, sleepy meditations.
Chores Undone
I used to pour black seed into feeders, used to love that—
to know I’d fed a bird and sent it off—goldfinch, sparrow, nuthatch.
Have the hummingbirds left yet? I let their nectar go cloudy,
every feeder go empty. I offer instead the black husks
of coneflower, the shriveled zinnias. See, in the garden—no mums
dug in, blanketflowers unpinched, lavender unharvested.
Why do I leave so much undone?
Something broke, some rhythm—no pill can fix it. No spinning
planet pulls me toward its rings. The strings that bound me
to all these chores—they’ve gone slack. I wait for a wind
to make them taut, for colder November air to come in,
to fill me like a kite again.
Goldfinch photo: Michael Murphy, Unsplash