June 2022
Bio Note: I have been nominated for a Pushcart and Best of the Net Prize. Two poetry collections (The Moon Over My Mother’s House, Finishing Line Press, Somewhere in the Telling, Mellen Press), and two chapbooks (Simple Gestures, Texas Review, Women at the Onsen, Blue Light Press) are in my repertoire. A new chapbook, Talking Me off the Roof, is forthcoming from Kelsay Press in late 2022. Recently retired, I live in an endless summer state of mind.
Husband Rebuilding the Engine
He does things like that.
Oiled bolts spread on a tarp.
In old military issue coveralls,
not camouflaging his own disasters
of stalls and spills,
nuts and springs clamor
onto the belly of the engine.
I want him to seek a mechanic,
but he needs to conquer
this jetsam and flotsam of steel.
I come out, hold the hood up,
turn the key, push the pedal to the floor.
He listens for the hum, that perfect pitch
He'll spend hours doing just this.
I call him for dinner,
I call him for a bath
I call him for love,
there is no time, but this time,
watching him under a single bulb
waiting for the motor to ignite,
rebuilding all that fails him
into something that turns over and runs.
For Better or Worse
We had no vows for our hurried lunchtime commitment,
only there at the justice of peace to make our unborn son legal.
Had we an oath, we would have never said
for better or worse,
maybe for better or best
not realizing the presumptions of our shared youth.
Here we still are, the son, legal
and grown into his own vows.
While for us, the word worse seeps into the borders of our promises
and better or best sheds its skin,
but leaves an armor as we stand guard
on a precipice and look down
at our remaining journey of steep and rocky paths.
©2022 Laurie Kuntz
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