Author: Jean LeBlanc

asteroid belt
a good enough reason
for clutching one’s pearls

strawberry rhubarb
some marriages just work

lost river
childhood memories
gone underground

sharp-edged dune grass
we argue
against the wind

he whispers into my deaf ear
i read his eyes

kingfisher
a rattle as the river
turns south

waning moon
arranging flowers
in her mother’s hands

for each grave
a different verb
carried, lifted, borne

(Originally published in what a [hiding] place, Cyberwit, 2019)

loop trail
but for now
just out and back

bus stop languages
good-bye
we all understand

Fragment of Thought during a Panel Discussion on Contemporary Poetry

Do I want to know there are anti-lyric factions, anti-narrative factions, anti-whatever…I

between showers
brief intervals
of butterflies

first day of classes
the heron a model
of attention

art studio
an empty frame
frames an empty frame

sepia tones
the way they spoke
back then

how to win you back
mockingbird
from the neighbor’s yard

(from The Opposite of Bird, Cyberwit, 2015)

existence
a little
four-note song

winter’s grip —
remembering what it’s like
to be touched

an irregular pulse
earlier each year
bluebirds

wind chimes
the gentle rain
he would have loved

reminding myself
this isn’t the first sunrise
she didn’t see —
just the first we saw
without her