Cedar Koons

Selected Poems

Even the page says, / Don’t spill that ink / on this unspoiled white. / Your scribbles are / so broken, your words / so bald, so patent, / they reveal your / mediocrity.

—from “Hierophant”

Selected Poems

Our first appointment late / on a Friday, the therapist / ought to be tired. Instead she’s honed / like an old knife ready to skin / us cleanly out of our marriage.

—from “High Priestess”

Since You Left

I’ve been cleaning this house. / First sweeping you out of it, / dustballs behind old shoes in your closet, / stacks of last year’s catalogs, / the gray dirt that clings to clutter, / and then, unwittingly, / polishing, arranging, even decorating / you back in. How you were before / when I thought you happy.

Leaving Home

Opening my legs for her wasn’t easy. / She was hunched and burnt-looking. / Her whole face puckered toward her mouth. / She spoke with words like “dirty shame” / while she gave her absolution — / a small, white cloth inserted / into my womb.

Selected Poems

Understanding, silent, they stand near. / Their patience is our shield. Beyond desire / their touch steadies us, and where fear / would make us turn they guide our feet, fire / like an emptiness burning them to love.

—from “In The Keeping Of Angels”

Listening To The News While Cooking Supper

A habit, but it must change. / Knowing all this makes me responsible — / while I am setting dishes out / some unknown people are, / by my compliance, / being unspeakably wicked!

Six

Coming up from the creek / hacking at the bushes / with a homemade sword, / he will step / on the nail, in the shit, / run through poison ivy, / get tick bit, / bee stung / lost — / his bones are growing.

The Pregnancy Scare

She missed her period, her breasts grew tender / and for a week she was a guest in her own womb. / Alone, she felt a presence around her / inside, a larval dream.

Nocturne

Each night since the moon passed full / she has awakened just before dawn / from a dream which she ponders then forgets / in the stillness when even the insects sleep.

Taking Responsibility

You want to give birth to your child naturally. You want childbirth to be a positive experience. You have read about, talked about and surely thought about the labor and birth that lie ahead. Maybe you have taken childbirth classes to prepare yourself.