Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE QUIET BETWEEN US, by DANIEL GUTSTEIN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE QUIET BETWEEN US, by                    
First Line: The red coal of the sun
Subject(s): Grandparents; Relationships; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers


The red coal of the sun,
blue wind, fat leaves
slick and slip underfoot
as I chase you or follow
past the old wooden shed
to the cypress-ringed lake.

Hollow, whiteness, colder --
three words used to describe
your Grandma when the breath
slid from her body. You slide
between slender trunks.
Up on rocks, you turn,
eyes the brown buttons
sewn on one of Grandma's dolls.

One lantern lit in her den,
your Grandma would stitch
from a sack of yarn and rags
not only caps, bodies, shirts,
but personalities,
the skewed smiles and whiskers
of changeling, foundling, found.

I advance but you raise a palm
as if to say, "Stay there,"
the sun doused by the wind,
the lake white as pearl,
the quiet between us so new,
the distance complete.

Copyright © Daniel Gutstein
http://www.unl.edu/schooner/psmain.htm
Prairie Schooner is a literary quarterly published since 1927 which
publishes original stories, poetry, essays, and reviews. Regularly cited in the
prize journals, the magazine is considered one of the most prestigious of the
campus-based literary journals.







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