Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MOVING, by KAREN SWENSON Poet's Biography First Line: Tenderly I swathe cups in the times Last Line: As I box my life. Subject(s): Memory; Moving & Movers | ||||||||
Tenderly I swathe cups in the Times, pack books and shoes, box thirteen years of life. Frame after frame comes down leaving its place. The wall outlines the emptiness and with these pictures I pack others. My son crawling under the dining-room table dragging a trail of Swee'pea nightgown to give a cockeyed grin round the tablecloth's edge. Days warm with the cicadas' shrill piercing through the geraniums' falling petals. Some I would discard. Nights filled with colic crying and no comfort, with waiting for a man who did not want a home. Nights spent in a coma of alcohol and music, trying to find the string in a maze of marriage. But though I attempt to keep them out of the boxes they slither in; like roaches they need little space and have lived here long. They are indigenous to my life, cannot be left behind with broken curtain rods. I hear their dry rustle in the crumpled leaves of the Times as I box my life. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...POSTCARDS TO COLUMBUS by SHERMAN ALEXIE THE PALLOR OF SURVIVAL by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER by DENISE DUHAMEL |
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