Drawing: In the Evening, 1991
(after Magdalena Abakanowicz)

I.

Old woman, who are you...
with your silent history
as deafening as a war?
The shadows surrounding each side
of your face could be hands
holding a gesture of surrender:
the white flag of cheekbone,
eye socket, straight nose,
closed mouth.  Does the geometry
of dusk have a patron saint?
Is it you, solitary witness,
anonymous equation, collector
of the thin sound of night
as it envelopes the day?
 
II.

You know who I am.
Your grandmother forgotten
in the myth of your childhood.
The gray face of memory,
nostalgia.  The fact that you
are the same age now
as I was when you were born--
impossible for you to accept
like a black cloud of starlings
overwhelming the sky.  Look
at me watching you.  Daughter
of my son, I will wash your regret
with my absent hands.  Wrap you
tight in the blue damask of morning.

published in The MacGuffin.

1.  Memories of Angels

pure light of the first day
arc of feathers and their nonchalance
the open ceiling of heaven  

3.  The Bottom of the Ocean

speculation and rumor
hearsay and innuendo
dark and dark

4.  Warnings

never trust a clear sky
look out for the man with loose change, empty pockets
beware of the little death waiting to explode

5.  Regrets

the book not read
the poem not written
the heart disguised as a fist

6.  Loneliness

transparent moon in her blue house
lost star without a constellation
quiet sun in your hands--firefly

8.  Day Dreams

the past, the future
some other place
anyone but you

9.  Night Dreams

tonight
here
you and no one else

published in the Northwoods Journal.

Page 3

© Copyright, 2012, Linda Nemec Foster.
All rights reserved.