artwork: ralph murre
Book, Lamp, Tree
by
Karen Stromberg
I’m
going to give you three words,
the
nurse told my mother,
which
was a lie--a moment later
she
asked for them back.
Mother
couldn’t find them,
looked
around the room, dipped
one
hand in and out of her pocket.
The
truth is it was my fault.
I
had plucked them out of the air
and
locked them in my mind,
just
to see if I could.
~
first published in Wordgathering
