Lucy Hamilton
Between
Watching her face is
so all-absorbing—
if I glance up
the excitable trees
startle me—out-of-context
as if breaking into
intimate conversation,
or my seeing them
for the first time;
so I bring them in
the window
aspen, willow, poplar,
between their leaves
kestrel, squirrel, woodpecker,
and Drambuie the shy
tossing horse gallops off
to the horizon;
or we joke
that I come only
for her music—conducting
four spoons of puree,
liver and potato, two of
gooseberry-custard
toward small hunger
in a room grown
large with Bach;
hours of silence
listening to rhythms
of breathing—the green
swish of branches,
deep sleeping—times she
lifts her arm, raises it
with her hand dropped
at the wrist.
so all-absorbing—
if I glance up
the excitable trees
startle me—out-of-context
as if breaking into
intimate conversation,
or my seeing them
for the first time;
so I bring them in
the window
aspen, willow, poplar,
between their leaves
kestrel, squirrel, woodpecker,
and Drambuie the shy
tossing horse gallops off
to the horizon;
or we joke
that I come only
for her music—conducting
four spoons of puree,
liver and potato, two of
gooseberry-custard
toward small hunger
in a room grown
large with Bach;
hours of silence
listening to rhythms
of breathing—the green
swish of branches,
deep sleeping—times she
lifts her arm, raises it
with her hand dropped
at the wrist.
Lucy Hamilton started writing poetry when she joined the Poetry School in 1998. Her long sequence, Being with Annette, was commended in the Scintilla Open Poetry Competition 2002.
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