After Writing 38 Poems

desperately seeking serenity

I want to write about lakes, their cold spring-fed clarity and deepening blues, want to write about rivers running fast but smooth by me, to imagine lines flowing from a place I’ve never been or even known, at least not well. But peace hasn’t caught up yet, the words bees in my mouth, a thousand suns needling sleep. Everywhere in the house light slants through glass, its knives hot on my skin. Outside, the air funnels into silence, filling its empty wind socks and crying out beauty, misery.

Lori Lamothe is the author of three poetry collections, Trace Elements, Kirlian Effect and Happily.