ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Jennifer Manthey is an MFA graduate of Hamline University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in journals including Crab Orchard Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, RHINO, Calyx, and Palette Poetry. She lives in Minneapolis.
I Circle a City Lake and Converse with Nature Like a Real Poet
Morning light through the branches
like a many-windowed home.
My son, asleep at home, is old enough now
to see his Blackness next to my white skin.
Frail-forming ice
at the lake’s edge.
To the moss on that rock,
heavy slop, I say,
I have been careless with maps.
Calling a place beautiful or desperate
when really everywhere is everything.
Skin too, I can only whisper.
I have been careless with skin too.
To the roses tucked in for winter
under leaves and plastic, I say,
Don’t give my child your hidden pity.
To the fallen pine needles,
yellowed and old, I make promises
which I have no words for.
They listen with bare kindness.
To the leafless tree, I sigh. You’re right,
I say, There are things my son needs
I can never give him.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
