Everything on Day One
Hugh snowflakes. Peas of mushy hail.
Sheeting rain. Bleak sun.
Half efforts and still not yet midday.
Freezer-burned bread overstuffed in the toaster
unplugged before sticking in a fork.
Tea over-steeped and bitter, the string
pulling cooled liquid up and over the cup’s edge,
soaking the tag, beading on the kitchen counter,
all because of watery cohesion.
The bowl of melted snow on the deck railing
freezes a thin crust each night
but sippable by noon by corm hunting squirrels.
Still, a single crocus announces its bright yellow arrival
below the cherry tree yet to bud, surrounded
by surface moss damp all winter, lining
the tree-shaded sidewalk edges, sheltered.
The garden I abandoned two years ago
is reverting to grass around a rusty rake.
By tomorrow blades I’ve just walked on
will have sprung back from my steps
and there’ll be no trace of me on it.
Perhaps I should dig into the unturned
compost pile of all I have discarded this winter.
But dusk has me reeling with
returned condensation, a few flakes
hovering, a few rising, the rest of the world falling.
Egg Timer
Hard-boiled egg dropped unnoticed
on the kitchen floor not three minutes ago.
She brings shell fragments
one at a time to her mouth, feeding
herself as if a mother bird her chick.
I hear the first couple shell bits
crunch between her few new teeth
and strong milk gums; and I try to pry them
from her hand and reason with her, no don’t eat
just give to daddy. She’s adamant
and fights ‘Da’ off with curled fists
and flailing arms, screws up her face
grinning gum wide. Her teeth and shell flecks,
stark white within her mouth, form
a jagged smile, as she picks stray
yellow from between her fingers
and angles towards my mouth.
David A. Goodrum, writer/photographer, lives in Corvallis, Oregon. His poems are forthcoming or have been published in Tar River Poetry, The Inflectionist Review, Passengers Journal, Cathexis Northwest Press, Wild Roof Journal, Eclectica Magazine, among others. Additional work (poetry and photography) can be viewed at www.davidgoodrum.com.