Catskills: An Ode
Michelle Bonczek Evory
Image by Paul Pastourmatzis
Red water rocket, Han Solo
strapped to your cylindered body blasted
to the roof, may you pale forever
under a New York sun.
Rope swing, please keep your hold
as our bodies glide over the valley.
Cold Catskill waterfall we showered beneath
when it rained,
Johnson Baby Shampoo, bubble
domes on flat, slate stone.
Tadpoles, rest your tails
on my sandy banks. Nibble, little
fish, tickle our tiny toes.
Cabin built by fathers, by shoulder, by
thigh, bicep, lift and blister,
may you rebuild yourself
in my DNA.
Wooden loft ladder, four granddaughters in one wide room.
Small, sleepless window, lead us
to clouds shapeshifting in moonlight.
Perseids meteor shower, keep us
awake with your flurries.
Tin foil-wrapped potatoes, soften
under starlight, warm
in dawn’s glow.
Wild grape, spiral your vines
through all of my fences.
Water walker, cricket, bat,
blackbird, bear, invisible
coyote,
I hear you, know you
roam these bones. Feed me:
I dream you in marrow.
Michelle Bonczek Evory
Michelle Bonczek Evory is the author of The Ghosts of Lost Animals, winner of the Barry Spacks Award and an Independent Publisher Book Award, as well as an open-source textbook Naming the Unnamable: An Approach to Poetry for New Generations (Open SUNY Textbooks) currently being translated into Gujarati. She lives in Oregon with her husband, poet Rob Evory, among all the wild things. She mentors poets and writers at The Poet’s Billow and can be found at www.michellebonczekevory.com.