On that morning
of faceless clocks
and empty sleeves
his last breath left him,
flew from its wrinkled perch,
a butterfly leaving its chrysalis.
All day I sensed it near me:
light exhaling shapes
of shadows, thin silver points
skating across leaves,
breezes spilling designs
across a puddle.
I felt the soul of wind
whose stillness is an
inconsistency and change
the only truth a breath
can touch as it waves
through fingers of grass.
By evening
I could hear its whisper
in the voice of a shell.
___
As the recipient of the Library of Poetry Book Award for 2012 from the Bitter Oleander Press, Patty Dickson Pieczka‘s second book, Painting the Egret’s Echo was published in 2013. Other awards include the 2010 Frances Locke Memorial Poetry Award, first place in the ISPS poetry contest for 2012 in the free verse category, and a nomination for an Illinois Arts Council Award. She is the author of the book Lacing Through Time (Bellowing Ark Press, 2011), and a chapbook, Word Paintings, (Snark Publishing, 2002). She graduated from the Creative Writing Program at Southern Illinois University. Writing contributions have appeared in many journals, including Bluestem, The Bitter Oleander, Blue Unicorn, Crab Orchard Review, Eureka Literary Magazine, Red Rock Review, Sierra Nevada Review, Willow Review, and The Cape Rock.
Friday, January 3rd, 2014 11:41 am
Categories: Issue 7.3, Poetry
