Martha Silano
On a Bench Facing West
at 4:05 pm. The wind is up.
A raft of common mergansers.
A bunch of herons on the floating dock.
Some crows there too.
It’s hard not to think
of all the times I jogged past this.
10-minute mile.
It’s hard to not make up a story
that everyone I pass on this trail is healthy.
Today my day spent figuring out how to climb stairs
less, how to conserve my energy for things like this
half mile / half hour walk. Forcing myself to slow
to a 29.37-minute mile pace.
A woman said she counted thirteen herons.
The luck of it!!
And now the gratitude list:
Only one foot cramp.
My son did his laundry without me having to ask.
My daughter, insisting I read The Waves,
sent me images of underlined words
about being a stalk: my roots go down
to the depths of the world.
A pair of mallards. A pair of …
what are they called? They have chevrons
on their breasts. Oh, yeah: gadwalls!
Wind blowing harder. Something about being
all fiber. I envy the joggers. The joggers,
and those who die in their sleep.
Martha Silano has authored seven poetry collections. Her newest book is This One We Call Ours, which won the 2023 Blue Lynx Poetry (Lynx House Press 2024). Acre Books will release Terminal Surreal, a collection about living with ALS, in the fall of 2025. Martha’s poems have appeared in Poetry, Paris Review, The Missouri Review, North American Review, American Poetry Review, and in the Best American Poetry series. Her website is available at marthasilano.net.
Return to September 2024 Edition
at 4:05 pm. The wind is up.
A raft of common mergansers.
A bunch of herons on the floating dock.
Some crows there too.
It’s hard not to think
of all the times I jogged past this.
10-minute mile.
It’s hard to not make up a story
that everyone I pass on this trail is healthy.
Today my day spent figuring out how to climb stairs
less, how to conserve my energy for things like this
half mile / half hour walk. Forcing myself to slow
to a 29.37-minute mile pace.
A woman said she counted thirteen herons.
The luck of it!!
And now the gratitude list:
Only one foot cramp.
My son did his laundry without me having to ask.
My daughter, insisting I read The Waves,
sent me images of underlined words
about being a stalk: my roots go down
to the depths of the world.
A pair of mallards. A pair of …
what are they called? They have chevrons
on their breasts. Oh, yeah: gadwalls!
Wind blowing harder. Something about being
all fiber. I envy the joggers. The joggers,
and those who die in their sleep.
Martha Silano has authored seven poetry collections. Her newest book is This One We Call Ours, which won the 2023 Blue Lynx Poetry (Lynx House Press 2024). Acre Books will release Terminal Surreal, a collection about living with ALS, in the fall of 2025. Martha’s poems have appeared in Poetry, Paris Review, The Missouri Review, North American Review, American Poetry Review, and in the Best American Poetry series. Her website is available at marthasilano.net.
Return to September 2024 Edition