Like the whoop of a student
tumbling from his dorm into January sun,
swaggering and young,…… spreads—
like the wide
scrawl on the concrete bridge:
I love Karin—…… …… (I love Nick!
look at those kids…… in their eloquent coats
aqua blue…… green as a jewel
shoving a boulder of grainy snow
through the rails of the bridge
crushing it…… …… SINK IT!…… …… no
it floats…… …… unstifled
those are my kids)
…… …… …… …… …… …… my cloud
sailing from my round sides
irrepressible omphalos…… …… overtakes everything:
all you joggers and staggering
drunks, all you
geese rising with your sharp cry
off the water, frighted
…… …… by oblivious…… joy.
Kjerstin Kauffman
Kjerstin Anne Kauffman is a poet and essayist living in Spokane, WA. Her work appears in The Cimarron Review, The Hopkins Review, 32 Poems, The Cresset, The American Poetry Review, and elsewhere.
Also by Kjerstin Kauffman (see all)
- Work Done? David Mason’s Pacific Light - February 19, 2023
- Well Said: New Prose by Daniel Brown - September 21, 2022
- Spells & Structure, Structure, Structure: On C. Dale Young’s Prometeo and Marcia Karp’s If by Song - May 22, 2022
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