Sam Brown. (Photo courtesy Wendy Brown-Báez)
Sam Brown. (Photo courtesy Wendy Brown-Báez)

It’s autumn. Leaves have taken over

the back porch and I sit at the

window, hungry for soup.

You have been gone for

years now. I am used to the color

of your absence: white

that was the edge of

pain is now a border of comfort,

holds me in the frame

and lets me speak

with measured words

of what I once could not

utter without drifting away.

The last heat of Indian summer

shimmers off the brickwork despite

the twist of limbs

under a sullen sky.

I gather up carrots, tomatoes,

onion, a heavy pot, and a

recipe I taught myself.

Soup, curled by the fire

will be a welcomed comfort,

a prayer against the cold.

 

Wendy Brown-Báez is a writer, teacher, performance poet, and installation artist. She is the author of the poetry collections Ceremonies of the Spirit and Transparencies of Light. Wendy is the creator of Writing Circles for Healing and the recipient of a 2012 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant to present poetry and writing workshops to nonprofits. She is the after-school writing instructor at Face to Face Academy in Saint Paul, where she is kept on her toes.

Posted in: Poetry
Tagged: 2013, Fall, winter