Bone Density
On "The Conjugation of the Paramecium"
Auden Lines
Advent People
Anniversary
I threw the bone toward that incessant claiming
– Claudia Emerson, “Bone”
We must release our bracelets,
slide rings off, unclasp watches,
remove keys from pockets,
or the bone density test
will convince itself
we’re made of steel.
On "The Conjugation of the Paramecium"
This has nothing
to do with
propagating,
Muriel Rukeyser said in her poem.
Today I am observing western pond turtles,
many orders beyond the paramecium.
Desire for renewal hides beneath a carapace.
Deep inside the female
inseminated cells divide.
The situation of our time
Surrounds us like a baffling crime
– W.H. Auden, “New Year Letter,” 1940
...the homes I warm to, /though seldom wealthy, always convey a feeling /of bills being promptly settled /with cheques that don’t bounce.
For us whose dreams are odorless, what is real seems a bit smelly.
Even our most myopic have good enough vision for courtship.
Here’s my brother-in-law’s ex-wife “L”:
When he is well
she gives him hell,
she throws a brick
when he is sick.
If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten
we belong to each other.
– Mother Teresa
We would do good
not to hide
candy behind the days
of the calendar.
Lay down a symbol
of harmony in a wreath
made of evergreens,
light an infinite number
of many-hued candles
for the long vigil.
after Robert Pinsky, “Antique”
I tripped on the path
chasing you, I fell
at the glimmer
of not catching you,
we merged
for decades in rooms
outside towns
with snarled roads
and we chafed against
our tangled lives.
Cathryn Shea is the author of four chapbooks, including most recently Backpack Full of Leaves (Cyberwit, 2019), Secrets Hidden in a Pear Tree (dancing girl press, 2019), and It’s Raining Lullabies (dancing girl press, 2017). Her first full-length poetry book, Genealogy Lesson for the Laity, is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in September 2020. Cathryn’s poetry has been nominated for Sundress Publication’s Best of the Net and appears in Typehouse, Tar River Poetry, Gargoyle, Permafrost, and elsewhere. See www.cathrynshea.com and @cathy_shea on Twitter.
