October 2018
Kate Sontag
sontagk@ripon.edu
After 22 years of teaching in the prairies of Wisconsin, I now live in the Berkshires with my husband and two spaniels where I'm grateful for mountain views and swims in as many lakes as possible once the ice thaws and before it returns. I am co-editor (with David Graham) of After Confession: Poetry as Autobiography (Graywolf), and I'm published widely in journals and anthologies. My most recent work appears in Villanelles (Everyman's Library), Cooking With The Muse (Tupelo), SoFloPoJo, and One. I have a pantoum forthcoming in Raintown Review and I'm editing an anthology of poems about hair.   
Note: I wrote this pantoum a couple years ago when nature seemed “off,” so very out of balance as it is now. It’s also part of a series of pantoums that use “paint chips” as a way to help create various exterior and interior emotional landscapes. I do hope reading this is not like watching paint dry! 
​
Summer Song
 

Leah paints the front door strawberry red
Closer to calamine lotion or salmon mousse
Stalks the island for salad when it’s thickafog  
Picks each beach pea from its mottled pod
 
Closer to calamine lotion or salmon mousse
Leaves out the white next time for a truer red
Picks each beach pea from its mottled pod
Gathers her rosehips for tea and jam while she may
 
Leaves out the white next time for a truer red
Tries chili pepper, scarlet lily, robin’s breast, cranberry     
Gathers her rosehips for tea and jam while she may
Looks longingly at blackberries still green on the vines
 
Tries chili pepper, scarlet lily, robin’s breast, cranberry
Strange weather has stalled this edible world
Looks longingly at blackberries still green on the vines
Blueberries and raspberries mostly gone by
 
Strange weather has stalled this edible world
The sea is a tireless beast dreaming of sleep
Blueberries and raspberries mostly gone by
My stepmother heart breaks like a cracked claw
 
The sea is a tireless beast dreaming of sleep
I want everyone I love to live forever and feast
My stepmother heart breaks like a cracked claw
Old Sadie dog swims in saltwater but refuses to eat  
 
I want everyone I love to live forever and feast
Singing Lobsters, crabs, mussels, chanterelles  
Old Sadie dog swims in saltwater but refuses to eat
David bakes a golden loaf of cattail pollen bread
 
Sing Lobsters, crabs, mussels, chanterelles
Stalk the island for salad in thickafog
Bake a golden loaf of cattail pollen bread
Paint the front door strawberry red
 ​​© 2018 Kate Sontag
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