too soon, the leafy
red of the maple
it's too fast
this year
heart frozen, easier
if ice glued the
door down. How
could I be the
woman who, too
many Marches ago
played the magical
dominoes, black
as your hour and
I felt the ordinary
slides away. I should
have known I'd
bang my knuckles
to blood getting
to you tho for months,
no warning signs
would have touched me
pastel splotches
the first crocus yellow,
almost too yellow
like the blue of
robin's eggs
magnolia and the
smaller star magnolias,
spicy, sweet
Japanese apricot
trees, their spicy
rose wind and the
lemony winter
hazel, light a blue to
blur blues
how many years,
Japanese plum
petals unsticking
themselves from
themselves, a
chrysalis
a delicate
assembly of
flesh tones
and mauves
seductive as
skin under
silk and gauze
How many years
since you?
How many more?
Lyn Lifshin's Another Woman Who Looks Like Me was published by Black Sparrow in 2006 and selected for the 2007 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence. Other recent books include Barbaro: Beyond Brokenness (Texas Review Press, 2008), Persephone (Red Hen, 2008) and 92 Rapple Drive (Coatalism Press, 2008). Her book Nutley Pond is forthcoming from Goose River Press, and Light at the End, the Jesus Poems is forthcoming from Hazmat Press. Her poems have appeared in most literary and poetry magazines and she is the subject of a film, Lyn Lifshin: Not Made of Glass, from Women Make Movies. Her web site is www.lynlifshin.com.