December 12, 2005
by Lyn Lifshin
white moon from
the kitchen table.
Glitz thru bare
branches,
dark as antlers
The empty nest,
a bed of twigs.
Somewhere west,
a man closes his
butcher shop for
good years after
his wife climbed
into the attic. There
were stories, the
girl strangled with a
baby inside her,
just moved to Boston,
one of, was it 12
other victims
Police cars near the
Methodist church. January
snow soot stained.
I too was starting a life
I couldn’t live in
by Lyn Lifshin
abandoned, always when
there wasn’t any light.
Night spread its blackness
like sheets in a house
where no one lives
I think of my mother
on the phone then, how
here, too, we’d talk and
talk. When did I first
feel so abandoned?
Not by my father who
never talked or the wild
cold men I tried to
tame. No, they were
predictable as the
ice on their fingers. So
why now, when her
leaving didn’t do
it does every house
feel full of ghosts?
by Lyn Lifshin
less than ten more days.
Charcoal sky this morning,
not even the geese.
Pink streaks, then
back to charcoal.
Who would think,
tightening a rope,
of those cleaning the
blood later. That was
a story from someone
no longer. Soon I’ll
scoop up the cat,
hot as a warm stone,
the coves of the house
like another’s body
____________________________
Lyn Lifshin has published more than 120 books of poetry. One of
her recent collections, Another Woman Who Looks Like Me (Black
Sparrow at David Godine, 2006), has been selected for the 2007
Paterson Award for Literary Excellence for previous finalists of the
Paterson Poetry Prize. Recent publications also include Barbaro:
Beyond Brokenness (Texas Review Press), 92 Rapple Drive
(Coatlism Press), Desire (World Parade Books), Lost in the Fog
(Finishing Line Press), Nutley Pond (Goose River Press),
Persephone (Red Hen Press), and Light at the End (Clevis Hook
Press). Lifshin has won numerous awards for her poetry and
nonfiction, edited four anthologies of women’s writing, and been the
subject of an award-winning documentary film, Lyn Lifshin: Not
Made of Glass. For interviews, photographs, additional biographical
material, reviews, interviews, samples of work, and more, her website
is www.lynlifshin.com.
◄ Previous page Apple Valley Review, Spring 2009 Next page ►
white moon from
the kitchen table.
Glitz thru bare
branches,
dark as antlers
The empty nest,
a bed of twigs.
Somewhere west,
a man closes his
butcher shop for
good years after
his wife climbed
into the attic. There
were stories, the
girl strangled with a
baby inside her,
just moved to Boston,
one of, was it 12
other victims
Police cars near the
Methodist church. January
snow soot stained.
I too was starting a life
I couldn’t live in
by Lyn Lifshin
abandoned, always when
there wasn’t any light.
Night spread its blackness
like sheets in a house
where no one lives
I think of my mother
on the phone then, how
here, too, we’d talk and
talk. When did I first
feel so abandoned?
Not by my father who
never talked or the wild
cold men I tried to
tame. No, they were
predictable as the
ice on their fingers. So
why now, when her
leaving didn’t do
it does every house
feel full of ghosts?
by Lyn Lifshin
less than ten more days.
Charcoal sky this morning,
not even the geese.
Pink streaks, then
back to charcoal.
Who would think,
tightening a rope,
of those cleaning the
blood later. That was
a story from someone
no longer. Soon I’ll
scoop up the cat,
hot as a warm stone,
the coves of the house
like another’s body
____________________________
Lyn Lifshin has published more than 120 books of poetry. One of
her recent collections, Another Woman Who Looks Like Me (Black
Sparrow at David Godine, 2006), has been selected for the 2007
Paterson Award for Literary Excellence for previous finalists of the
Paterson Poetry Prize. Recent publications also include Barbaro:
Beyond Brokenness (Texas Review Press), 92 Rapple Drive
(Coatlism Press), Desire (World Parade Books), Lost in the Fog
(Finishing Line Press), Nutley Pond (Goose River Press),
Persephone (Red Hen Press), and Light at the End (Clevis Hook
Press). Lifshin has won numerous awards for her poetry and
nonfiction, edited four anthologies of women’s writing, and been the
subject of an award-winning documentary film, Lyn Lifshin: Not
Made of Glass. For interviews, photographs, additional biographical
material, reviews, interviews, samples of work, and more, her website
is www.lynlifshin.com.
◄ Previous page Apple Valley Review, Spring 2009 Next page ►
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Apple Valley Review:
A Journal of Contemporary
Literature
ISSN 1931-3888
Volume 4, Number 1
(Spring 2009)
Copyright © 2009
by Leah Browning, Editor.
All future rights to material
published in the Apple
Valley Review are retained
by the individual authors
and artists.
www.applevalleyreview.com
A Journal of Contemporary
Literature
ISSN 1931-3888
Volume 4, Number 1
(Spring 2009)
Copyright © 2009
by Leah Browning, Editor.
All future rights to material
published in the Apple
Valley Review are retained
by the individual authors
and artists.
www.applevalleyreview.com
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