ManicDDaily

Mid-March in North Country

We are in the brown season here.
Winter wilting; my husband no longer even trying
to enforce inventory control—(that, the rule
of using up the old
before starting the new.) 

So, I reach into the fridge
for one of my two open almond butters, also
a peanut butter, started (nonetheless) yesterday—
sometimes you just prefer peanuts—

A cancer patient is sleeping
down the hall. I have learned of late
that you cannot fix someone, make them happy,
you can only try not to make them unhappy,
or more unhappy—
and to comfort, keep
them company—

I could expound, but this brown season
doesn’t brook more redundancy—
all those taupe barks on ochre fields, 
brown bared earth—

It’s a landscape that doesn’t bother
to assert its right-now beauty—
though it’s there all right, a backdrop
of birds back, great tan puddles pearling
lengthened light.

*************************************

Another draft poem of sorts. Bear with me! I think of myself as more of a prose/fiction writer, but am in a hard place for extended narrative, so am returning to poetry–and have decided just to post rather freely, even if some things could probably use a bit more editing! Thanks much for your visits and kind comments. Have a good day–

ps – pic doesn’t fit so well, but is one of mine. All rights to poem and illustration reserved.

pps – this is a poem, i.e. somewhat a work of fiction–people in my life are remarkably happy even under difficult circumstances–

This entry was posted on March 20, 2022 at 8:23 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Karin Gustafson poetry, manicddaily