Hear a Poet, There a Poet: "From the Porch" by Lori Desrosiers
From the Porch
Work-weary, I settle into wooden rocker
Maples flutter, yellow summer wind.
Retired couple strolls by softly talking.
Crickets audible over car noise.
Mailman in blue shorts drops another book.
Trash cans wait patiently.
A rift of jet smoke splits the sky,
buzzing louder than the neighbor's mower.
Mark, my friend's boy, is over there.
He writes the countryside in Iraq is lovely,
but soldiers leave trash by the side of the road...
perfect place to hide a bomb.
She comes by and helps me garden,
The hyacinths we planted are white and blue.
The gladiolas bloomed this week, blood red.
© 2009 Lori Desrosiers, "Three Vanities," Pudding House Press (Johnstown, Ohio)
Lori Desrosiers is the author of the poetry chapbook "Three Vanities" and the editor of "Naugatuck River Review," a journal of narrative poetry. She lives in Westfield.
"Hear a Poet, There a Poet" features poetry by local authors chosen by Northampton's Poet Laureate Lesléa Newman. It runs on Wednesday's book page every other week. Poems for this column have been pre-selected. Please do not send poetry submissions or requests to the Gazette.