Mara Bergman
The Summer My Father Died
Boys stoned frogs the summer my father died,
surrounded the stream, there was never any hope,
and followed the floating white bellies.
My sister and I were left there, in Accord, New York,
in a bungalow swarming with cousins.
We wanted to be like them, unaware
of our steps as we ran through the dark grass.
Or of night’s enormity - all those beautiful stars
forgotten above the wooden roofs.
Our aunts were windows apart
and our uncles wore those white undershirts
with the scooped-out neck and arms.
On porch steps, as the orange light collected moths,
Aunt Dorothy kissed us goodbye, unable to answer
questions we couldn’t ask.
At home, lilacs and roses still bloomed under my window.
Nose pressed against the screen, I longed to hear
my parents’ voices murmuring in the garden.
Page(s) 88
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The