Young Mother Trying to Remember an Image for the Poem She Is Writing

by Lisa Zimmerman

Paniz GM

Thin bar of light under the door, one daughter singing in her bedroom —

she is holding, trying to hold or say, to speak up, speak out, her arms full

of fresh sheets, the lost day cinched around her waist, invisible effort put forward

and backwards into the dark hallway. She is saved by her daughter’s voice —

half of the word or words scatter and drop from her hands in her mind.

Stumble of meaning, ring of keys, jingle of roses opening

in her girl’s song — little broken minutes before and after the words’ luminous flare

inside the quiet far beyond the day’s clean pages.

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Lisa Zimmerman’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Natural Bridge, Florida Review, Poet Lore, Cave Wall, and many other journals and anthologies. She has published three poetry chapbooks and three full-length collections, most recently The Light at the Edge of Everything (Anhinga Press) and The Hours I Keep (Main Street Rag). Her poems have been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize. She lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.