Category: Free Verse

brigid walks barefoot through winter snows
a lantern in her hand and flowers in her train

have you ever loved a man
whose smile was the kiss of summer
tumbling into your bed
for the first time each year?

the river overran his banks this year
not softly, as he does with each spring’s flood
—but in a torrent

soul of the river, they say
you dress in murk, but oh,
king of waters, i know it is not so

i have listened to you call to the loons on the lake
since the first time i heard that haunting birdsong

by nature i am a monstrous thing
twisted, bent, and torn
an untamed wilderness of thorn and vine
grows where my humanity should be