The view out my office window keeps getting greener and greener, and I can’t get enough. (Neither can my cats, who very much enjoy the influx of food watching energetic birds and squirrels.) There really is something about the new growth that brings poetry back to the forefront of my mind. Just this morning I sat down and poured out a poem, and it’s been several months since once struck me with that kind of urgency. It’s a great feeling.
To continue my celebration of National Poetry Month, today I’m sharing a reprint of my poem “Rocking.” This one first appeared in the 2017 Texas Poetry Calendar, an annual regional favorite that I’ve been lucky enough to have several poems in. Then “Rocking” was reprinted in the 2018 edition, which was a sort of editors’ choice/best-of compilation. The 2018 calendar can be found in the Dos Gatos Press store or on Amazon for $15.95.
And now my poem can also be found here. 🙂 Enjoy!
Rocking
On the back porch
at dusk
we rock,
slightly discordant:
not synchronized,
nor alternating – not quite.
My bare toes
push off the patio table
while your thick boots
press against the ground,
and we sit
silently
in the need of so many words
that hover around us
like fat bees in the heat –
always close,
but never touching,
scenting the sweet
of our skin.
I am stung.
“I love you,”
I say quickly.
You pause your rocking
for a fraction of a moment,
smile slightly,
and resume,
the rhythm of your chair
now synced with mine.
© Annie Neugebauer, 2016
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