National Poetry Month Issue 30

It's the last day of April. National Poetry Month 2011 is already in the rear-view mirror. Before we rush on to May, let's pull over and take one last breath of poetry.

Today's Maryland poet is Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka. She is hosting a reading of contributors to Life in Me Like Grass on Fire May 26 at the Carroll County Arts Council, Westminster, MD.

Driving on the Beltway                                                                                 

by Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka

On the Beltway

I miss the earthliness.

Instead of the buoyant

steadiness

of forsythia's yellow, expectancy

of apple tree buds breathing

their white insides open

in fragrance, the coolness

of tulip leaves slowly unwrapping

in wisps of laughter,

I feel the push

of passing cars, the uneven

pavement, borders

of broken lines,

concrete barriers. While I count

the exits, the minutes crawl

along my spine, deposit lead

in my thighs. I long

for a whiff of chocolate mulch

freshly piled around the trees. 

To stop.

To touch the porous skin.

To be touched.

Posted with permission of the author. This poem first appeared in  Weavings 2000: The Maryland Millennial Anthology.

One of  Danuta's poems will be in Little Patuxent Review, Make Believe, out in June.

Writing Exercise:

Do you have a poem that takes place in a car? If not, write one. If so, ask yourself if the poem balances (or contrasts) what's happening inside the car with what's happening outside the car.

Tomorrow, I'll post a full list of the Maryland poets I featured this month. On to the darling buds of May!