T H I R T Y – T W O

I’m surprised to see you;
after the lifetimes this stretched-out skin
—this hive-of-busysadangry-bees mind
—these over-firing neurons
—these pulled-too-tight and SNAP! strands DNA
have seen.

Thirty-two.
In eight more years, I will be exactly twice the age as my eldest daughter
—or, “her daughter is half her age;”
she’s
“too young to look that old;”
“a baby with a baby;”
…infantilized constantly.

Told I’m too young to feel this tired.
But newborn children must sleep for seventeen hours
and maybe it’s because the world is too little and too much,
all at once such a wondrous blur but I saw a colour in nature I’d never seen before and it made me hyperventilate
and there’s a train building up speed five miles away and sometimes I think about laying on the tracks, just to see just to see
and a jet-engine is roaring and I think how often does an airplane crash into bedrooms at night
and is it always a moment of sad, desperately sobbed prayers answered or
does everybody feel the world moving in their veins?

Thirty-two,
who even are you?

A ghost
A child
A mother
A sister
A sister
A sister-
in-arms.

Thirty-two;
I’m surprised to see you.

But I wouldn’t run towards you, hopeful,
if I didn’t believe every year of you has been worth it,
and the next eight, or thirty-two, or (if I’m lucky) sixty,
will be as beautiful
as Just This:

Thirty-two,
I see you.

Taken at Carden’s Cove in Marathon, Ontario on the coast of Lake Superior on the poet’s birthday, July 17, 2022.

photographs of us…

October 2018

“I felt it shelter to speak to you.”

~ Emily Dickinson

February 2019

Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”

~Jalal ad-Din Rumi 

August 2019

I believe that poets have to be inside their poems somewhere, or the poem won’t work.

~Joy Harjo

We write the old fashion way, in our journals first. Many of us draw and paint and truly become energized with the love of creating in many genres and types of media. Photo taken by Gina Marselle from a salon in 2017. This is a photo of Kat’s journal…you can tell by her quote tattooed on her arm, “…disturbed….”
No stress, find balance. Photo by Gina Marselle, 2018.
Often, when we write, we have delicious foods to help keep the creativeness nourished. This is from a salon in 2017. We are now meeting online due to COVID-19 and we all miss meeting in person. Hopefully, soon things will return to normal. Sometimes, ordinary isn’t boring, after all. Image by Gina Marselle.
We live and write in the beautiful land of New Mexico. It truly is enchanted. Image from the Southwest Chief Amtrak train of the Sandias, taken June 2017 by Gina Marselle.
When we are together, we write and write, and write (and who needs shoes?). Image from a salon in 2017 taken by Gina Marselle.
Image of Saturday’s Sirens poets’, Emily, Kat, and a guest poet Sadof… from a salon in 2017.
We find inspiration in quotes…
Sometimes, we wear hats and have a cocktail (usually tea) to celebrate poetry and Shakespeare’s birthday (and did we say poetry?). Liza, in the photo above, is wearing a fabulous hat, shares her happiness even when we’re social distancing because of COVID-19. Salud. Kampai. Viva. Sociable. À votre santé. Cheers.

We have been meeting every Thursday for the month of April. Photo of Emily, Liza, Maxine, Kat, and Gina. Screenshot by Gina, April 23, 2020.