Patrick Stevens’ most recent poem to appear here was A Brief Word About Butterflies (December 2013).
Dorothy Burgess
By Patrick Stevens
Her unpolished nails would trace S-curves
on my six-year-old back, my head buried
in the shoulder of her chamomile blouse.
She led a life of other lives, quiet,
transfixed by biography as though
she did not know what had happened
to Margaret Thatcher, Mamie Eisenhower
a retinue of titanium women, while
she let her husband do the driving.
I misunderstood her until last Monday.
Asking a friend to reach an awkward itch
he scrawled an S-curve on my spine
and in that simple swivel of his wrist
she roared unto the universe, while
Eleanor and Victoria cowered in books.
I love this poem. In trying to come up with a clever review of your “Dorothy Burgess” I find that “I love this poem” works best. Thanks for submitting it, it hits me in the that spot that some poems do.