Cemetery at Sunset

Few visitors drift between the weathered
monuments, seeking something wordless
beneath evening light that pools
amber across marble and earth,
each soul carrying its particular solitude.

Here, among the dancing shadows,
bitter truths lie carved in stone,
and silence draws out like a blade.

Long ago, I learned I’m more comfortable
among the unliving, these stone-marked
souls who ask nothing.

* 

Snatched From the Sky

         After Joseph Cornell’s “Butterfly Habitat, 1940”

Inside a box, sealed and locked.
Wall after wall of suspended butterflies.
Colors—green, orange, yellow—
bright as fresh paint.

Butterflies boxed, mounted,
snatched midflight, and paralyzed.
Killed, captured, throttled, then pinned.

A casket of needles.
Navy wings, baby blue,
black backs, blue mountain
swallowtail, forever frozen
in flight.

*

Lynne Kemen is a poet whose full-length collection, Shoes for Lucy, was published by SCE Press in 2023. Woodland Arts Editions published her chapbook, More Than a Handful, in 2020. Her poetry appears in anthologies including The Memory Palace: An Ekphrastic Anthology (Ekphrastic Editions, 2024), Seeing Things (Woodland Arts, 2020), and Seeing Things 2 (Woodland Arts, 2024). Her work was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2024.

She served on the Board of Directors of Bright Hill Press from 2016 to 2025 and has been active on several other not-for-profit boards. She curates Word Thursdays, a twice-monthly reading series for Bright Hill Press. Lynne serves as an Editor and Interviewer for The Blue Mountain Review. Through her writing and editing, she continues to foster connections within the literary community. Libraries and literacy are another passion.

She lives in Delaware County (NY) with her husband in an old farmhouse that once belonged to her aunt’s aunt.

Website: http://lynnekemen.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lmkemen/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lynnekemen/