Author’s Note: I wrote the poem “Cadence” with recollections of mythology where a small bird sits on our shoulders to remind us of our death. I had also been diagnosed with an aortic thoracic aneurysm which seemed like a small bird caged, waiting to break free, where death is the freedom it seeks. These two images intersected in an expression of mortality, the beauty in its inevitability. The title references the brevity of our lives, punctuated by pleasurable and worrisome “modulations.”
Cadence
Befriended wren, you sit
on my shoulder, and every day
I am reminded of how weightless
my life is, how little Death
will gain when it takes me
to the top of your coniferous tree,
releases me to winter clouds.
Now, guardian bird, you reside
within my rib cage, uncertain
when you might burst free —
your wingbeats with a power
equal to Death’s —to tear yourself out
of the bars that are my view, my
awareness, of the final rhyme, my terror.
♦
Alma Peterson is the author of two books of poetry, published by Blaze Vox Books, Was There No Interlude When Light Sprawled the Fen (2010) and The Last Place I Lived (2015). She is a graduate of the MFA program for writers at Warren Wilson College. Having recently moved to Florida from Minnesota, she enjoys the tropical environs of the Gulf Coast. In addition to her writing, Peterson is a painter in abstract and surrealist styles of art.
The Delmarva Review, published in St. Michaels, MD, selects the most compelling new poetry. fiction, and nonfiction from thousands of submissions nationwide (and beyond) for publication in print, with an electronic version available. It is produced at a time when many commercial publications (and literary magazines) have closed their doors or are reducing literary content in print. Selection is based on writing quality, and almost half of the writers have come from the Chesapeake region. The review is available worldwide from major online booksellers and specialty regional bookstores. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, support comes from tax-deductible contributions and a grant from Talbot Arts with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council. Website: www.DelmarvaReview.org
Pat Weich says
Beautiful poem