Felt Flowers

A 3000-piece puzzle left undone
on the coffee table for months
a ukulele played every day
for weeks now a doorstop
bouquet of felt flowers
green and peach, purple and pink
on my bookcase fading from sun
with life dust and dog hairs
a gathering of earthly delights.

Miscarriage hobbies, distractions litter
the house, discarded, but not forgotten.

The crafted arrangements now attract the child
who sings The Beatles’ songs, Let It Be
his favorite, rubs the fuzzy tulip to my face
asks if when the ice storm is over
can we go outside to find
the snowdrops “born yesterday.”

*

Kathy Kremins (she/her), born and raised in Newark, is a retired New Jersey public school teacher. She has two chapbooks of poems, Seamus & His Smalls (Two Key Customs, June 2023) and Undressing the World (Finishing Line Press, 2022). Her first full-length book of poetry, The Curve of Things, will be published by CavanKerry Press in 2024. Recent poetry appears in When Women Speak Anthology, Soup Can Magazine, and Writers Resist. She is a member of the feminist collective, Write On! Poetry Babes.