Alison Prine
—
No One Hurt Me Without Loving Me First
I was thinking of you
when I came across a pair of wings
submerged at the edge of the clear lake
without a body
joined by a bone
moving in the gentle waves
as if in flight
but without a body there is no bird
there is no memory
whether or not you are good
at forgiveness
is what I was thinking at the time
then about the shoulder bones
of a blackbird
the strength of certain memories
that move beneath the surface
where we hold
all of our desires
even the desire to hurt
do birds love the sky
or the shoreline that touches me
like someone else’s story
have you heard of a blackbird drowning
do you have dreams of flying
in mine it’s like swimming through air
it’s like saying goodbye to everyone at once
Abundance
years accumulate
magnolia, hepatica, weeping cherry
all in bloom
boulder, blossom, bullet
beneath the wide blue self-sufficient sky
my brother gave up
stones, shale, a shoreline shifts
we had discussed
his suicide many times before
all of those conversations
moved to the interior
one act became a monument
a landmark
never very far
even as a child
when I climbed onto his shoulders
that monument stood permanent
and heavy in our future
our laughter echoing off
it was a very difficult thing to do
inside the woods, briefly
a carpet of flowers
Circling
the dead branch fell
from the butternut
I understood
the storm
a thump in the dark yard
summer unsettling
the leaves beginning to drop in June
maybe thirst
maybe illness
each day on my walk
I see a family of geese
four adults and eight goslings
near the pier
then seven
then six
I have a feeling of circling
waiting for a clearing
so I can touch down
I watch a lone white egret
waiting in the shallows
yesterday a woman told me
she doesn’t want to live
freedom is confusing
all that uninterrupted space
in the sky
my brother did not want to live
and now he doesn’t
while the egret waits
the goslings grow
being important and
being unimportant
I have always wanted
to live
and I do
Alison Prine’s debut collection of poems, Steel (Cider Press Review, 2016) was named a finalist for the 2017 Vermont Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Five Points, Harvard Review, and Prairie Schooner among others. She lives and works in Burlington, Vermont.alisonprine.com
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