March 2015
I grew up in Houston, Texas, but have lived for the past twenty years in Monroe, Louisiana, where I work as a second grade teacher in a public school. I live in a little house on a beautiful bayou, with one of my two sons and two dogs. When I'm not teaching or writing, I enjoy reading, running, and church. I get inspiration for most of my poems from family, friends, and everyday events. I have work in 2River View and The Hudson Review.
Goodbye Poem
Let's just say apples do explode.
Then what would you do
if you were sitting on a bench
in a park eating lunch when suddenly
the stranger next to you disintegrates--
just as he lifts the fruit to his
lips just as the sky tilts and
pours sunshine down on his
red hair just as you turn to ask him
to read the poem you're reading
KABOOM he's gone and there you sit
alone on the bench poem in one hand
apple in the other—bright bits of peel
all over your new gray coat?
the little miles
Each morning fresh road stretches
before me. I never make good time.
All day long it falls behind me
in bent and broken pieces of light.
Small duties advance incrementally--
a mile for milk, another for the bank,
two for the doctor—a million little miles
click past with a slight miscalculation
in trajectory: a quarter rolls beneath the sofa
untracked; a hand slips quietly from a hand.
A mile for the cold blanket, another
for the sleepless pillow, two for the empty bed.
We go to the beach, I play in the water.
Wrestle the pulling tide just to stay
upright. I look back toward the sand
and find our umbrella nowhere.
Credits: 'Goodbye Poem' and 'the little miles' were first published in The 2River View (18.3 Spring 2014)
©2015 Anne Nance