gina marselle
“The moment is constant. The moment seizes us.”
from the final scene in the film, Boyhood
moonrise at the end of the day
it’s such a miracle to see the bright
sphere through
naked tree branches
just this mornin’
sunrise swimming through
creamy clouds
we all witness this wonder
but how many actually marvel
knowing it is this moments
reminder of life
your breath
should not he taken for granted
carpe diem, better—
carpe omnia
or better, less cliché—
allow the moment to seize you.
Note: please listen to the poem here: https://soundcloud.com/gina-marselle/glory/s-RBmKOssZVEB
I.
There was a time before I loved horses.
I was so little then,
I probably had a made up name for horse.
By the time I was 7 or 8, that is all I talked about.
Soon, my soul transformed into a horse.
I had a best friend horse, a soulmate before I turned 10.
Santa brought her, and we were inseparable for 16 years.
Her hoofbeats summoned my dreams,
we galloped into a love not of this earth.
Ancient like the desert sands.
Horses became a mantra for breath.
Then, I only dreamed for 20 some years.
Now, a daughter raised, a son who is 9,
I have this rescue horse that
isn’t a dream, he breathes fire
into my heart.
He’s desert bound with the clear, blue sky as his kingdom.
II.
This afternoon, I felt most lost to myself.
When I get like this, when my anxiety is about to break me,
I drive to Edgewood. As soon as I pull into the stable,
I see the horses.
When I close my car door, I can already hear my horse
nickering his greeting. Shaking his head. Trotting in his paddock.
His tail raised high telling everyone that he is an Arabian horse.
The color of midnight.
His nicker makes his body quiver. His hello is for me—or for carrots.
Today, he gets a giant Honeycrisp apple
and leftover, bruised pears my son didn’t eat during the week.
III.
I try to remember life is lovely. Days are blessings.
On days that I forget,
I take a drive to Edgewood.
to find that little girl I use to be.
She was brave, courageous. She had a loud laugh.
She rode bareback and galloped over the hillsides.
I don’t ride my rescue horse.
I don’t have that courage anymore.
Instead, I dream we are running wild across the desert landscape.
We are one as we chase the wind, leaving plumes of dust
in our wake. The sun sits warm on our backs.
My mother died last September. I have been a little lost.
My husband moved out last October.
I became a little more lost.
COVID-19 never left. I became a little more lost.
My horse doesn’t understand his job,
but his therapy keeps my heart beating.
In my dreams, we gallop until the suns and stars meet in glory.
IV.
This says to the world more than any poem,
that I am before all else a lover of horses.
In my soul, my bloodstream. My very heart beat.
Fascinating is that a human heart and a horse’s heart
can begin to synchronize within 35 feet of each other.
The only thing closer, I think,
is when the mother is pregnant with her child.
God knew before I was born,
that my spirit belonged to the horse.
My mother loved horses.
My mother’s mother loved horses.
I love horses.
I'm a protector of them.
V.
I believe this love will be the last memory of mine,
as my final breath leaves my body.
I hope that as I enter into the next light, I am granted
a steed to ride the stars wildly and happily.
If a shooting star you see, call me Joy as my hands
merge into one with the fire mane of my horse’s light.
My laugh will be loud. My smile wide.
I will send light.
And my loved ones will know joy.
© Gina Marselle, January 8, 2022
Note: This poem was inspired by a writing prompt shared by Liza Wolf Frances (https://saturdays-sirens.com/liza-wolff-francis/). We read a poem by Lisa Fay Coutley called: Letter to the Aftermath. We created a word bank to use in a poem we wrote. My word bank from Coutley’s poem was as follows: heart shape, fall, leaves, 73 °, sunny, plumes of white clouds, desert, mountain, chickens, dirt, son, leaves, tomatoes, horse snort, sun and stars, warm air, peaches, bruised pears, apples and dust. To learn more about the poet, visit here: https://lisafaycoutley.com/poems/.
at precisely 11:54 p.m. last night my dog woke me up–
his cold nose in my face.
then I heard the knowing boom.
fireworks.
he hates fireworks.
he just wanted on the bed.
i moved over, he curled is 110 pound body in the curve of my legs,
he breathed a sigh of relief.
usually he soothes my anxious moments, now it’s my turn to soothe his.
as midnight grew closer, so did the fireworks, gunshots,
hoopla.
everyone in my house is asleep, except me.
listening, watching, waiting.
i almost missed the new year.
10, 9…
i am desperate for a new year like a whelped pup is for milk.
the wind is cold outside,
but the fireworks pop. pop. pop.
8, 7…
the soft rain isn’t keeping the merriness at bay.
i counted down earlier in the night with husband and son,
we did sparklers, sprayed silly string and threw pop-its.
we were merry–
ate moist donuts and juicy pomegranates.
6, 5…
watched Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, played chess, sipped Shirley Temples.
discussed resolutions: stay positive. move forward.
cherish the day.
count your blessings. one. day. at. a. time.
seek joy, love, and hope. always hope.
say your goodbyes (to my mom, Betty White)
4, 3…
may we finally see this pandemic turn into an endemic.
the world is worn out.
our Christmas tree lights seem to sparkle with more heart.
the rain falls with emphasis now, as the world eagerly celebrates.
2, 1…
Happy New Year.
—gina marselle, (C) 01.01.2022
Listen to the poem here: https://m.soundcloud.com/gina-marselle/welcome-2022
Katrina Kaye
He was never articulate,
educated yet unimaginative.
He knows this.
He knows I know this.
It is not that I expect poetry
over prose. I am the writer
between the two.
It is an old anxiety
only recently resurfaced.
He does not write to me.
Instead he sends me sketches.
One of coffee in a paper cup,
planes in the background through large
thick windows.
One of the rails of a balcony with a
river rushing below.
One of me, lip bite and eyes shining
as I watched him go.
His words are simple,
“I miss you” and “thank you.”
In my letters,
I ask him about the weather,
he sketches the rain on the window.
I ask him if he is keeping busy,
he sketches a sketch of him sketching
within a sketch of him sketching.
I ask him if he’s lonely,
he sketches my face among the rumpled
blankets of morning, sun streaking
from the windows behind me.
He sketches two children playing
invisible violins and reading each other’s palms.
Her ghost does not haunt these pictures,
and I wonder where he keeps her now.
If her wrapped body still
hangs heavy in his hands,
if the slideshow in his mind
still flashes on her crumpled body.
If he still blames himself
for being moments too late.
I know he does.
I ask him if he had forgiven himself,
he sketches houses rebuilt and clear skies.
In a moment of weakness,
I ask him if I will ever see him again.
To this he replies with words,
hand scrawled and sloppy,
“I count the days, my dearest friend.”
Chicago wants your hands,
the creases of your knuckles,
the calluses on fingers.
New York is hungry for your history,
a collection of the photographs
your mind took and formed into line
and oil. Boston knows too well
the way you weave your words
onto a canvas.
I am just a girl in New Mexico
sitting by window sill,
bandaging the blisters,
filling journal with words
that belong to the last picture
left on the your palms.
I am too soaked to continue
to sponge the pain that leaks
over your rim.
You are wasting time among desert,
choking on the dry memories of youth,
attempting to rebuild the house
you burnt to the ground ten years ago.
You have not built a home in my bed,
you are merely hiding there,
tracing eternity on my sheets
pretending to be the boy who left me
at the train station.
They call to reclaim their wayward son,
posing pretty, waiting for your hands
to reclaim their essence.
Katrina Kaye
childhood playground
fallen prey to constant foot falls
the shift of flood to drought
the scorch of day evaporates
morning dew on slick leaves of grass
the numb of night wilts
long stalks of mild green
into withered waste
it always seemed safe here
somehow perpetually permanent
but this world is volatile
it is always taking
turning what is
into what was
heaven dries in the barren heat
and heaves into wasteland
children lose their fairy wings
and become merely human
the meadow transforms
like all things must
magic is dissected
into practical parts
and disappears
“I am alive and well, I release what doesn’t belong to me…”
i wear my heart
like a third eye —
it rests on my forehead, sees the world
too close, too much, too all-at-once
and it belongs to breaking;
repeats a mantra to come back together again,
but still whispers a combatant confession:
i have seen/felt too much to release.
“I am alive and well, I am loved, supported, and in control…”
…and still– not.
head too controlled
by third eye heart;
heart too overwhelmed
by moving world
and belly: quakes in response
aches in response
to third eye and heart combined;
asks head: why are you wearing your heart like that?
heart whispers back: so i can see.
and head feels.
and belly quakes/aches/breaks.
a body in thirds, centred;
heart as third eye:
imbalance.
© Maxine L. Peseke, November 21, 2020
Katrina Kaye
if the storm did come,
i fear my first
instinct would be
to walk to the apex
bold and frenzied
my streets have been
dry for too long
leaving me desperate
to stand in the rain
i would trade my sight
for the scent of distant
thunder
my taste for the prickle
of hair twirled
in every direction.
i have prayed
for destruction.
but what do i know?
my mother was never
ripped into the sky
by unruly clouds,
my house never blown
down despite the coyotes
that surround back door
i have never wakened
to shattered glass
underneath my morning feet.
why should i distress the
wrath of weather when my
New Mexican sky is endless blue
my sun bright enough i see
only red in the darkness.
i want the storm,
the wind, the water,
i want to be ravaged by the
wrath of unkind gods.
i know this wish
may not be kind
threats of storms ravage
those who prefer to hold tight
to rock and earth
and toss bodies
like crumpled paper
hoping to cling
on to abandoned words.
i have not felt
that windfall, and
i do not seek to
inhabit the pain
of the others
but i can’t
help but to search the sky for
gathering clouds and sit pale in the
wind hoping for the sky to crack.
My toes are prone to nails ingrown;
I keep digging up my nailbeds,
like a gardener turns soil to help
flowers grow,
Though my feet were not made for flowers,
so maybe I’m made of more tree limbs;
but resounding cracks are telltale
sign of a forest falling
Because my roots never took to ground.
I am prone to uprooting myself–
there is an inherent urge to move
crawling under my skin,
limbs thirsty for solid ground;
My roots tangled up
somewhere between Chesapeake Bay
and the muddy Rio Grande;
over-watered in Georgia’s swamp lands.
And Northern Ontario’s long, harsh winters
see so much time for roots to freeze–
this ground is frozen-hard
long into spring.
But then maybe I was never a tree
never flowering dogwood, dancing in the breeze
or strong pinon pine, stretching to the sky,
nor wizened oak or mighty maple-tree.
The truth is I never identified
with constant perennial things.
I never thought of myself as
everlasting;
I always wished to be a bird
and my patterns of coming and going,
like migration, supported that:
I am notorious for leaving.
I am prone to preening:
prettying up like peacock,
but more like a rock dove:
hardy/hearty (but not much to look at).
Recently, I’ve preened so much
my feathers have begun to fall out
and fail my wish for flight
(though there are those that could fly,
and instead use their battered feet:
like a roadrunner in the desert light)
But at least my tangled roots and faulty feathers
have proven to be
a fine nest — built for two —
Daughters, who are still trying to spread their wings
like their mother would like to do;
Daughters, who plant flowers
with their every blessed step;
Daughters, who have taught me
that I was never meant to be a tree,
but maybe that’s where my home
was meant to be.
And I can have wings,
And still be steady.
© Maxine L. Peseke, April 2020
artwork by Katrina K Guarascio
Guest Poet:
Maxine L. Peseke is a writer, mother, and sometimes freelance editor. She is currently living in a small Northern Ontario town, transplanted from New Mexico respectively (and most recently) where she originally met each of Saturday’s Sirens as part of the Albuquerque poetry community.
Katrina Kaye
I am rabbit
quick
fickle
I do not retain
the elegance of bear
or the quizzical owl
I am one
with the road
and all the world
all the world
is an enemy
I am less comfort
more nervous angel
a flight path miss marked
a collision
circling the same path
bleeding the same blood
little chance for escape
less chance for
a future witness
all these tricks
will differ only slightly
leading to the end of time
I am in the dark
my walls are high
and I resist your grasp
I have become wise
at resisting your grasp
Saturday's Sirens 