From the 2012 Texas Poetry Calendar
February 2012
January 2012
- “Wolf Moon (January)” by Patricia Spears Bigelow
- “Winter Grackles” by Jeff Santosuosso
flowcakes
the small blond girl
asks her daddy
for flowcakes
the kind that fall
out of the gray cloudy
sky on winter mornings
wet and cold landing
on an outstretched tongue
her daddy laughs
and says we don’t get many
snowflakes in Austin, Cat
she furrows her brow
draws snowflakes on white paper
cuts them up and throws her
flowcakes up to the ceiling
watching them float to the ground
while she stands under them
mouth open
tongue out
Laura Peña read with us September 10, 2011, at the Blue Willow Book Bookshop in Houston. Current President of Gulf Coast Poets, Laura won third place in the di-verse-city anthology awards at the 2010 Austin International Poetry Festival.
Loquats
Grandfather,
somehow, the loquats
made it through the winter,
thumbs of fruit
held on.
The goldfinches that fed
all winter at the feeder
left before their feathers
lost the gray of winter.
The loquats got their color
just in time: waxwings
flock in the tree,
flash from fruit to fruit,
tearing as they go
ripe, orange flesh.
Somewhere, far away,
goldfinches
sing in the woods,
yellow and black
flash between trees.
Here, only leaves
quiver in the breeze.
Here, only green.
Waxwings—gone.
Loquats—gone,
orange,
scattered on the ground.
Gary S. Rosin read with us November 5, 2011, at the Twig Book Shop in San Antonio. Program chair of the Houston Poetry Fest, Gary has work in or forthcoming in Concho River Review, New Texas, and elsewhere.
Wolf Moon (January)
Brightest of any moon in years,
blazing cut-out against the blue-black sky,
its small sidekick Mars, a pulsing orange firefly.
We stand shivering in the cold night
three days after your surgery,
watching the celestial display,
waiting for the dog to pee,
your larger hand enclosing mine
when suddenly a shooting star flashes,
streaks across so fast I have to squint to see it,
focusing all my energies on that one spot
where now there is only afterglow
and the small, fleeting radiance in my chest.
Patricia Spears Bigelow read with us at the Twig Book Shop in San Antonio November 5, 2011. Author of Midnight Housekeeping, Patricia has had recent poems in Sustaining Abundant Life: Women’s Prayer and Poetry, and Big Land, Big Sky, Big Hair: Best of the Texas Poetry Calendar.
Winter Grackles
The grackles sag the wires suspended from the streetlights.
A parabolic unease replaces horizontal balance.
Others blossom in the pasture,
Then swarm to an old, withered ash
Defoliated from winter’s cold.
Now instantly fuller than summer, the old tree swells,
Bloomed black by the grackle nation,
A flock that would nest in an entire springtime grove.
Branches shatter as the culprits take flight.
The sky darkens, blackout worse than blizzard
As the swarm takes wing again.
Jeff Santosuosso read with us at the Twig Book Shop in San Antonio November 5, 2011. Jeff has poetry in or forthcoming in Hobo Pancakes, Wilderness House Literary Review, and elsewhere.