My Edmonds News is pleased to present the second installment of a new feature, Poet’s Corner, presented by the Edmonds-based EPIC Poetry Group.
(small town embrace)
We walk down Main Street
hands clasped, fingers entwined
each shop flaunting its wares
the movie theater, one screen
showing “Bambi” again
never tiring of the themes
lost innocence and matricide
we step into the café
where they know our order
two demitasses are placed before us
foamy milk hearts
hiding a rich dark brew
onward past the bookstore
we eyeball the offerings, best sellers
plotting birthday gifts and book club reads
open doors of the travel store
lure us in to update our baggage
browse adventure: Belize, Tahiti
tropical musings to which we easily succumb
but we live here in this small town
and know nothing of paradise
Cynthia Hénon
~ ~ ~ ~
in which the poet becomes a bird
I folded my ego into triangles
like a flag and laid it down
in a ponderous pine box
away from prying eyes and crowbars
insults and abasements
slid off my feathers
back into the murky pond
pushed deeper by my black webbed feet
born again a swan
so regally white you’d think it braggadocio
but my meals were humbly gathered
straight from the slippery mud
Cynthia Hénon
~ ~ ~ ~
The Word of the Day is Lark
The word of the day is lark
I won’t lower myself to rhyme it
as the day goes on the wing
there’s a stillness- her dawn song shrill yet sweet
reminder of rough and tumble summer days which stretch out time
a bottomless pitcher of fresh lemonade
water fights, music in the shade
smell of cut grass and sycamore
until night lasts forever
and lark song awakens you from the dream
Cynthia Hénon
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Cynthia Hénon is a poet and yoga teacher in Edmonds. She participates in the monthly EPIC Poetry Group and her work can be found in their recent anthology, Soundings of the Salish Sea. She won her first award, an Honorable Mention, in the Write on the Sound (WOTS) poetry contest in 2018.
