ALL Review is pleased to announce Christine Holm's poem "Crumbs, a Dreamscape, and April on a Southcentral County Line" has been chosen as a runner up for the ALL Originals contest.
Crumbs, a Dreamscape, and April on a Southcentral County Line
On Sunset, morning is a mess of muffins crumbs and milk,
blueberry jam cornering mouths of two waist-height boys –
one standing on his chair, his brother, foot up and ready
atop the kitchen table – poised with their air-instruments,
causing as much real noise as hoped for. They turn a lullaby
into punk anthem. And who would be willing to quiet
the sure-shout, childlike and certain, punctuating Harmony
Hall, the chorus’ end?
For months, I make myself stone as needed, dignified as
needed, hollowed to echo sound. I cut my nails, then callous
fingers to learn, close enough, the chords. Thumb and fumble
through opening tones. Where we once sought allegiance,
we etch new, necessary homes. Most nights, I take
my nephews’ prayer across town with me – I don’t want –
as I lay out one setting at a table with six seats – to live
like this – as I shatter so safely night’s nearly-empty bottle –
but I don’t want – as I account for distance and many
losses – to die – as I wash, for now, what is mine only.
