Three Poems
Antonia Clark
The Terrain
In his sleep, my husband calls out
“No man’s land!” Later, of course,
he’ll have no memory of it, leaving me
unable to decide if it happened at all.
I fall into rough sleep, a landscape
of rutted ground, trenches, tripwire,
a bleak pastiche not so different from
our psychic territory these days
or the reality of those on the front lines,
their days’ contours carved by disaster.
I count myself fortunate, waking safe
in a sunlit room, the space I inhabit
like a remote outpost, where I wait
for the latest dispatch from the front
wondering how long the flimsy barricade
of distance will stand, safeguard.
And how we’ll hold up, and hold up one
another, when we are called to serve.
Frozen
Triolet on a line by Mari L’Esperance*
Placid, blank as a lake asleep in winter,
we persist, as if outer calm could save us
from ourselves. Pray no assault can splinter
this mask-like face. A lake asleep in winter—
its surface like a stronghold with no hint or
trace of its battered heart. Its icy crust
placid, blank. As a lake asleep in winter,
we persist, as if outer calm could save us.
*First line from Mari L’Esperance, “The Book of Ash”
Isolation Ghazal
Each day’s agenda’s full of empty hours. I stumble through it.
Heavy cloud cover obscures the sky. There’s a rumble through it.
The wash must still be done. A spin cycle’s cheap diversion.
I load my flowered sheets and watch as they tumble through it.
Putting faith in good intention, I court hope like a nervous lover.
My empty hands belie my plight, but I bumble through it.
I boil water, spoon sugar into porcelain cups as if ritual were prayer.
Too soon, the tea grows tepid, bland, and I grumble through it.
The news grinds on. Grim-faced announcers spell out the latest
tolls. I invent a litany of consolations and mumble through it.
We sleepwalk through the labyrinth — blind alleys, dead ends, doubt.
Still clinging to belief that there’s an exit, we stumble through it.
Antonia Clark, a medical writer and editor, has also taught creative writing and co-administers the online poetry workshop, The Waters Poetry.
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