Joan Colby- Two Poems

Perspective

Aug., 2014—8 year-old girl killed by fall in Yellowstone

“Closer to the edge”—the need for

Perspective. Wrinkled hollows

Of the canyon of the lower Yellowstone.

He loved shadow and frame,

How the overhanging jagged branch

Of jackpine against which I posed

Implied the romance of needle and cone

Set contrary to a Kodachrome sky.

That I was leery clutching hard

The rough limb was beside

The point of pleasing him.

Obedient child.The pretense

0f fearlessness solemnized

My profile. All my life

I’ve hated heights, remembering

The distant thunder of the falls

Preserved in the photograph

Froth frozen mid-air like the child

At the boundary, gazing elsewhere.

BERRIES

 

You are forbidden nuts, seeds, and berries.

Berries that you love. Fat red hearts

Or the tiny wild ones that are sweeter.

I walk through the patch where they shine

Like tears of blood. The raspberry canes,

A wealth of onyx. Jeweled brains

Of dark passion. You’d pour handfuls

Upon your morning cereal to float

Like small black mollies in a creamy ocean.

I yearn to fill my pail

But tantalizing you is only kind

When it results in fucking.

So I blind myself to temptation,

This glut of lusciousness I  must

Leave behind for the birds.