Poetry
Three Poems
by Helen Peterson
"Downward Dog", "Requiem For Dead Sea Bird" &
"Zoomagination"
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About the Author:
Helen R. Peterson has been published in over 100 online and print journals, both nationally and internationally. Most recently she’s had work accepted at Word Riot, Juked, Existere, and Strong Verse. She was also featured in The Lunch Break Book published by Poet Plant Press, was the editor of the small print journal Chopper, and read at the Bowery Poetry Club in November.
A mother of three living in Connecticut, you can find her blog at http://mspetersonexplains.wordpress.com/
Helen Peterson
Homegrown
New England Poetry
Downward Dog
My hips arch up, reach higher
feet planted on the floor, head
staring at ankles, muscles pull
further with every breath, like
those around my lips, forming
the words I love you, again,
over and over until the heart
pulls to the words, flexes
itself up to meet them
prays to the hand, the foot,
the mind, move this way,
turn, hold, feel, run.
Requiem For Dead Sea Bird
over beach, more rock than sand,
clouds drift, fat
as tulips blooming, thin
as the tissue wrapped
around discarded picnic sandwiches
the postage stamp sky between
seems to moan for the flightless
heap of muted song
the dusk of late November
hides the few mourners—
gulls and weather-hearty crabs—
in their mad dash for the last
possessions of the deceased
come Spring the only memorial
will be long white feathers
covered in grit, exposed
in a chaos of seaweed
Zoomagination
What do you see, little man,
turning your head this way and that,
pointing high into corners,
peeking under the mat?
Are there moose munching on Grandma’s good chair?
Giraffes sashaying in long wool underwear?
Or are sea lions swimming in sea tinted blue tiles,
Earning kitchen linoleum your giggles and smiles?
What you see with your mind, I never can say,
as long as you’re happy, they’re welcome to stay.
imagines the bridging of two worlds—the literal and the metaphorical—and questions what we have created, what has been lost, and what might be possible for the
Human Race.
