Covid Anniversary with Possible Weather
Ronda Piszk Broatch
Rain coming down, chased by more rain. If you must
know, I’m a strand of the alphabet, throwing off sparks
hoping something will light up and stay lit. Say I
open all the windows, let every thirsty thing become
drenched: the towels I just folded, the books and poster
of Einstein, my dad behind glass, the packing materials,
the cats. Perhaps I’m a brushstroke of that shade of gray
you can’t name, and obviously you are a color slightly off
the spectrum. Put together, we could be shards
of the bowl I broke trying to reach the maple syrup
from the back of the fridge, behind the plum preserves
and leftover birthday portobello mushrooms in balsamic
sauce, now splashed on the floor, the fridge door, my pants.
The question is, how to rearrange the furniture,
the future, our footsteps, now the sun
makes its own kind of break?
Ronda Piszk Broatch is the author of Lake of Fallen Constellations, (MoonPath Press). Ronda’s current manuscript was a finalist with the Charles B. Wheeler Prize and Four Way Books Levis Prize. She is the recipient of an Artist Trust GAP Grant. Ronda’s journal publications include Blackbird, 2River, Sycamore Review, Missouri Review, Palette Poetry, and Public Radio KUOW’s All Things Considered.