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LITA
SORENSON
My poetry has been published in various online and print journals, among them:
The Cortland Review, Amoskeag, Yemassee, Poetry Midwest, Bovine-Free Wyoming,
and The Wild Goose Poetry Review. A selection ( 'Quarto, with
Crows' ) will also be included in an upcoming anthology: Beat the Blackened Wing: An Anthology of Crows. In addition, I have published three books of nonfiction for young adults for Rosen Press in New York City. I hold a master’s degree in creative writing, and recently migrated west to Arizona from Iowa City, IA.
FIELD, BEFORE SUNRISE
The eyeless ant said to God: Give me eyelashes.
(Ancient Proverb)
Forgotten farm, Missouri
behind a grist of white clapboard shanty with warm rooms
Upturned rows ripe with rain and heavy plantings
stillness not before a hill (just a rise)
due east the sky blushed pink.
Each weary head turning its leaves like torn felt, jester's
hats, with fringe
The beaded faces concentric to pi.
Surely, their single ears must bend to the ground
listen to creatures, mere insects
Though bead-glow eyes turn on heaven
finding a blue Savior, as if
Dawn is the beckoning time for all who work the fields,
tend the stars.
Can you see their sweat? The same rind of earth
salty swear words
under your fingernails?
Breathe deeply. Taste sharp air.
Undulating sunflowers twist bright heads toward God
MOUNTAIN SNOWS AND VALLEY RAINS
(For Matt)
On a highway near in Arizona, July
the sound of your heart keeping time
to windshield wipers, cell phone, radio
as mist in the high desert falls;
monsoon season
Unlike the Mid-plain states steam rising
like Vesuvius,
days like blisters sealed out with shades.
But tumbleweeds still escape the sand here
the dust
doesn’t end with fists of rain
They roll down the highway on a journey, too
Some, big as Volkswagens
make their path.
Someone will have to pretend like wind to care,
Especially as you find your life there,
the same snowball effect
tunneling through a series of hands
effecting seasons, cars, lovers
Phrased like a song, that
comedic in reverse
you hope
Like a good natured dog
red tail wagging
tongue hung out
smiling in the distance of a rear-view mirror.
copyright
© Lita Sorensen
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