Poetry |

“The Glass Parrot” and “Elegy in Susan’s Garden”

The Glass Parrot

 

 

I have never understood the way stars burst

apart. I am deaf to wind and trees,

to the rose bush we planted, to the tomato plants

lying down with their fruits this August.

 

I almost understand — how St.Thomas More

became a fanatic and a torturer, and why young men

with hope and without it think a bomb is an answer.

 

I almost understand the day I was at your bedside

holding your child-sized hand. Tight in your other hand

the glass parrot. No — I made that up for the first poem

about your death.

 

There was no glass parrot. I did not

hold your hand. I stared at the cancer-filled mound

of your stomach, at your cheekbones that stood out

like wings, at your hand, really child-sized.

No, I don’t understand.

 

 

 

*     *     *     *     *

 

 

 

Elegy in Susan’s Garden

 

 

A few dragonflies hovered. I looked hard

to see their four wings: the species is dying out.

 

You and I settled into the cool Vermont nights.

Pears earned their yellow spots, a fledgling

fell down and then up.

 

We listenend for the abbondanza of August,

for the green sprouts that grew under bushes.

To ripen is to turn over in the mind.

 

Under us, worms curled in moist soil

and the earth turned quick as a closing door.

 

Next summer or some day, we might still

see a dragonfly float in the sharpness of daylight,

and brightness flounder above us.

Contributor
Deborah Brown

Deborah Brown’s second book of poems, The Human Half  was published by BOA Editions in 2019, recipient of New Hampshire Literary Award for Outstanding Book of Poetry. Her first book, Walking the Dog’s Shadow, was published by BOA in 2011. With Maxine Kumin and Annie Finch, she edited Lofty Dogmas: Poets on Poetics (Univ. of Arkansas Press, 2005). With Richard Jackson and Susan Thomas, she translated the poems in Last Voyage: Selected Poems of Giovanni Pascoli (Red Hen Press, 2010).

Posted in Poetry

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.