A Poem for a Thursday #265

Dorianne Laux is the author of a number of collections of poetry. She is a Pushcart Prize winner and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. She says of poetry “Poems keep us conscious of the importance of our individual lives…personal witness of a singular life, seen cleanly and with the concomitant well-chosen particulars, is one of the most powerful ways to do this.”

The cat calls for her dinner.
On the porch I bend and pour 
brown soy stars into her bowl,
stroke her dark fur.
It's not quite night.
Pinpricks of light in the eastern sky.
Above my neighbor's roof a transparent
moon, a pink rag of cloud.
Inside my house are those who love me.
My daughter dusts biscuit dough.
And there's a man who will lift my hair
in his hands, brush it
until it throws sparks.
Everything is just as I've left it.
Dinner simmers on the stove.
Glass bowls wait to be filled
with gold broth. Sprigs of parsley
on the cutting board.
I want to smell the rich soup, the air
around me going dark, as stars press
their simple shapes into the sky.
I want to stay on the back porch
while the world tilts
toward sleep, until what I love
misses me, and calls me in.

On the Back Porch
Dorianne Laux