January 2020
Author's Note:
Here are three small poems that are probably united by nothing more than their smallness and their noticeable final turns. But then most poems have
noticeable final turns (unless the poet chooses to end with a dying fall, or a whimper). I'm currently sending out my fifth full-length poetry collection,
and waiting, waiting, waiting, for responses. (Not a whimper, or a dying fall, I hope.) Please see my website at judykronenfeld.com if you want to read some
more of my poetry.
Harmless
Spring night—almost asleep:
a crane fly flutters its transparent wings
against my cheek like a ghost flower,
like a memory visiting
and gone, a dream immediately
forgotten—
without buzz, without sting.
Malaise
What we want when the days
begin to pile up against us—though we mumble
only about work not going well,
about a blister on a heel, and our friends
or lovers sigh “Tell me what you want
me to say”— is instinctive enlightenment
megawatts beyond our own—
a rush of it, revelation opening
like the first-seen broad avenues
of a famous city from the heights.
What we want is not laboriously-folded
origami birds made according
to instruction—however clever.
We want wild parrots feathered chartreuse,
scarlet, cyan, bursting from their jungle cover,
carrying astonishing messages
in their beaks.
Astonished Shoes
From the hospital window
the sky is a wistful blue,
and two purely pink contrails
looped lazily into it
begin to fuzz out.
The mild breeze
whips snow-pears on the balcony
into frothing bowls
of bloom, parachutes billowing
down to safe landing, billowing
down. While, here,
in her stricken room—
where the jagged light jolts
as if a mirrored door
had just slammed shut—
when the therapist attempts
to stand her up,
my good friend pees
on his astonished shoes,
then crumples in a heap.
"Harmless" was originally published in North of Oxford July 15, 2017
"Malaise" was originally published in Valparaiso Poetry Review (Spring/Summer, 2015)
"Astonished Shoes" was originally published in Life and Legends (June 30, 2016)
"Malaise" was originally published in Valparaiso Poetry Review (Spring/Summer, 2015)
"Astonished Shoes" was originally published in Life and Legends (June 30, 2016)
©2020 Judy Kronenfeld
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the
author (email address above) to tell him or her. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is the beginning of community at Verse Virtual.
It is very important. -FF