PoetrySally Seck

Snowmelt

PoetrySally Seck
Snowmelt

The petals
falling, bitter, the
memory of snow sweet
together we were I
wish I didn’t but I do so
wish I could step back,
I wish I could trace
the muscle to the source
of the pain I wish I could
breathe into it instead
of away. This tremulous
balance, feeling of
underglow, this shaking
of bees.


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Welcome Reading for the Virtual Crestone Poetry Festival
Welcome Reading for the Virtual Crestone Poetry Festival

The elk herd would walk by, slow

in the bleeding sunset

and we would watch them settling

in to the brush, tucking their hooves

Kudzu
Kudzu

How many years for the earth to eat the building whole. To choke out all the native plants by swallowing the sun.

Poets are kind
Poets are kind

Poets are kind, even when
you can’t find your notebook,
even when your voice shakes,
or a cliche slips out or your
whole body cavity is empty nothing,

Drifts
Drifts

All of this climbing just to always be on the edge
of this incomprehensible valley this
otherworld landscape of trailergreenhouses and
littletiny homes and vague walls of tires testaments
to something or other to going far enough away
to keep everything but the coyotes out this snow on
the mountains and nothing but drifts in the middle.

Arriving at Night
Arriving at Night

The false creek,
that lightning storm
the other night,
the yak twisting his head to fit
his horns back through the fence.

Pink Moon
Pink Moon

The moon rose whole and glowing
like the light through a communication wafer,
just above Challenger,
the Sangres laid out like a jawbone,
teeth sawing at the sky,
sacrificial blood spilling the
sky screaming pink cutting through,
offering raised with both hands,
a dribble of red wine down your chin.

Sonnet with Phrases from the Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Sonnet with Phrases from the Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Empty seats ringed in a pink glow,
lots of paper napkins and stack of sugar packets,
the click of the pump, and half of the flow,
the plastic burnt around the shining ratchets.

Elephant Cloud in Haiku
Elephant Cloud in Haiku

coffee in the dark
thick knit hats and pajamas
the disco ball spins

Burning
Burning

Something about fire but I guess it slipped away
I can feel it stuck, twisted just behind my heart
pulling hardest from my
neck pulsing with every breath.

Whatever it was that I forgot.

The reason you came
The reason you came

Unstable melting,
this winter heat haze,
this flickering shift
of perspective.