Michael Mercurio
Before I lived in this house someone else did
& planted haphazard daffodils in liminal spaces:
along the fenceline, in the thin verge between
basement window and driveway. A surprise
every spring: I do nothing, but they
return & return to hang their pallid heads.
Who can say what they mourn? Surely we
have no shortage of sorrows & complicities.
In the year you died the cold spells dawdled
through April; we never knew if what fell
was pollen or snow until sun punctuated it.
Attentive presence is a gift that gives itself
in two directions. The ruptured & aloof
don't understand possibility; they see only
what wrongness is. You saw that, too,
& yet knew it wasn’t all. Incarnated in
joy & salted by its opposition. Rich
with compost, with children. Dirt is
a poem, you might say. Taste how sweet.
For Michael Biegner
Michael Mercurio lives and writes in Western Massachusetts. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Palette Poetry, the Inflectionist Review, Bear Review, Sugar House Review, Rust + Moth, and elsewhere. He serves as Director of Community Engagement for Faraday Publishing Company, a nonprofit organization committed to centering marginalized voices. https://www.poetmercurio.com/
Return to September 2021 Edition
& planted haphazard daffodils in liminal spaces:
along the fenceline, in the thin verge between
basement window and driveway. A surprise
every spring: I do nothing, but they
return & return to hang their pallid heads.
Who can say what they mourn? Surely we
have no shortage of sorrows & complicities.
In the year you died the cold spells dawdled
through April; we never knew if what fell
was pollen or snow until sun punctuated it.
Attentive presence is a gift that gives itself
in two directions. The ruptured & aloof
don't understand possibility; they see only
what wrongness is. You saw that, too,
& yet knew it wasn’t all. Incarnated in
joy & salted by its opposition. Rich
with compost, with children. Dirt is
a poem, you might say. Taste how sweet.
For Michael Biegner
Michael Mercurio lives and writes in Western Massachusetts. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Palette Poetry, the Inflectionist Review, Bear Review, Sugar House Review, Rust + Moth, and elsewhere. He serves as Director of Community Engagement for Faraday Publishing Company, a nonprofit organization committed to centering marginalized voices. https://www.poetmercurio.com/
Return to September 2021 Edition