On Cells Renewing, or Not
Kelly R. Samuels
Here you are, the same, but not –
moving out & away.
Your skin & blood cells at a fair clip
& your heart hammering, as the poets write, strong &
steady, bent on another – new, too.
What frivolity, busy as we are tending to the ailing
mother & then ourselves. To the horses stamping
in their stalls, their coats in need of brushing.
We & I.
Us & you.
Me & me & me.
To make our way to the barn in January almost did us in.
Too: being tender with one another. Listen:
the neurons in the cortex never renew.
Nor the cells of the inner eye.
All just wears – the hem
& the wood drying & splintering.
Kelly R. Samuels lives and works as an adjunct English instructor in the upper Midwest. Her poetry has been nominated for Best of the Net, and has appeared or is forthcoming in various journals including Burningword, The Summerset Review, Kestrel, The Carolina Quarterly, Rappahannock Review, Construction, and Common Ground Review