The Land of Ice and Vine: Poems

Bare Boards

Hardly do I think of home

now that I'm years and miles away

settled in and settled down

to a quiet life of letters

But sometimes, 

just a little every now and then

in an idle moment stolen

from a meeting or lecture

I get the feeling of barefootedness

and it all doesn't seem so far away

The Louisiana summer heat,

more merciful in the remembrance

bends gracefully under the open kitchen window

puffing the curtains, lazy skirts

purple irises grandmother snipped

and set on the sideboard

smell sickly

candying the whole house

a wooden box of southern heat and light

open end to end 

I can feel again my growing self in shorts

a different body every summer

awkward, coltish, grinning and flushed from running in

I trace my way back to my once room

feet shuffling over the varnished boards

the different grains encased

a smooth and familiar creaking under me

each one a separate note

singing

-----------------

This was a university contest entry with the prompt "Somewhere far away in distance or time". It came in second place.