two poems by karen hart
I am drunk
I am drunk on your facein this moment,
your loose cheek
as it slips cross my brow,
a leaned in whisper of nothing important
and everything in the world
there is.
The day the waxwings came
feasting on last year's crab tree berries
yellow bellies here then gone,
the day the swollen buds yawned open to the bees,
the day it rained pink white petals for hours,
were no finer
than this,
your cheek touching mine.
The Unwatched Pot Scalding Again
Another time, another lifeI'd have been the one shouting,
Jesus Christ, what the hell, racking myself up,
cursing
stupid, stupid, the unwatched pot scalding again,
and cleaned up, gotten over it, poured another beer.
But not here, not now, scrubbing the caked bottom,
fire-hot water and scouring pad working
just the same as your snarl would've done,
if you'd seen the burn, smelled it.
Here, I've got the water going, the lilacs I was cutting
when I remembered dumped on the counter,
the purple star flower smell making me sick,
the door and window open, the air not fresh enough,
the pesto to please you slopped in another bowl waiting.
If I can get the pot clean I'll dump it back in,
pretend it didn't happen.
If I can make this dark crust disappear fast enough.
The trick is to clean it while it's still hot,
to dig the fingernails through the hot sludge to the metal,
the one time it pays to get burned,
so the char wipes away, invisible.
Here, I'm hoping you won't come in early,
that the late spring slant the sun casts through
the front yard's maples, the little garden I planted,
is enough to hold you there till I call,
Dinner's ready.
Enough to keep your heart from pounding,
to keep your burner from glowing red.
about karen hart:
"Karen Hart began her writing career solidly set on being a poet and refused all things journalistic, newsy or reporterish. But as fate, karma, and the luck of the Irish would have it, poetry and newspapers have gone hand in hand in her life, making for a never-ending exciting life of inspirations and deadlines."
Karen Hart lives in West Boylston, Mass. She is managing editor of The Lancaster Times and editor of MotherTown Monthly. She was named weekly journalist of the year in 1999 by the New England Press Association. She won first place in the 1998 Worcester County Poetry Contest. Her work has been published in a variety of periodicals, including Yankee Magazine, The Comstock Review and The Sow's Ear Poetry Journal.
Karen Hart read her poetry at the Folk 'n' Word Festival, Oct. 10, 1999, at the Green Rooster Coffeehouse, 6 Institute Road, Worcester, Mass.
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