Tag: Passage

Passage by Helga Kidder

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Passage

Wind whispers frost through the forest,
sun dabs her light on branches.

A lone leaf sails over the driveway.

In the garden, black-eyed susans peer
at drooping grasses.

The birdbath offers leaves under glass.

Something scuttles beneath hollies.

Morning grabs each detail greedily,
gathering the day to be weighed
by the heart.

*

Helga Kidder lives in the Tennessee hills with her husband. She was awarded an MFA from Vermont College and leads a monthly poetry group. Her poems have recently been published in Orbis, Atlanta Review, Dragonfly and others. She has five collections of poetry, Learning Curve, Loving the Dead, which won the Blue Light Press Book Award 2020, Blackberry Winter, Luckier than the Stars, and Wild Plum.

Two Poems by Robin Arble

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Passage
One night, sitting on a wobbling stool in a basement bar, I went shot for shot with
my father to prove my rage. I liked the jolt of euphoria, the slow burn coating my
throat, but I knew I needed water more than whiskey. I remember arching my head
back in the joy of a good piss, and I remember my head smacking concrete. Nothing
was more rewarding than the double headache the next morning, my first and last
gifts for turning 21. I never told him. Both hungover, he drove me back to campus
as I pretended to sleep.
*
I announce my deadname every time I pick up my hormones
in the same breath
I give my voice to a woman
who takes my name and date
of birth to access the two
prescriptions waiting for me
on the shelves behind her.
just once I want her
to lean forward and whisper
through the glass
if there’s anything else
I want to be called
to feel the shame
of knowing she knew
enough to ask.
*
Robin Arble is a poet and writer from Western Massachusetts. Her poems and prose have appeared or are forthcoming in Oakland Arts Review, Beestung, Door Is A Jar, Pøst-, Brazos River Review, Overheard Magazine, and Your Impossible Voice, among others. They are a poetry reader for Beaver Magazine and the Massachusetts Review. She studies literature and creative writing at Hampshire College.