Wild Goose Poetry Review, No 33, Fall 2017
THE WEDDING DRESS AND THE TUXEDO
Hers, still pristine, glitters, preserved
in its special box with clear-view window.
He wore the rental, returned it
on their way to the honeymoon flight,
avoiding late fees for this gray
cutaway he did not own, only wore
once—a temporary costume
for a permanent situation.
A hundred husbands wore these
same clothes — a brotherhood of
betrothal to change, to return
as promised what was never his.
STIRRING
I stand at the stove
stirring the soup,
love warming
for you— new
within me, curled up
for the long carry
ahead. Together
we’ll grow— you
forming me,
my body stirring,
forming you.
MOTHER’S IRON
A fold, a sleeve,
a sigh of steam—
flat-hot, heavy.
Billows of
wrinkles, exhale
pillows of air.
Pressed in line,
form a crease.
Conformity
by a half
Windsor &
pin-stripes
boards the Erie
Lackawanna.
Dad unfolds
the Star-Ledger.
His train hisses
to Hoboken.
Author’s Comment: I admire poets that can escort the reader into life’s elemental experiences and use simple language as the fulcrum for emotive energy. As a developing poet, I avoid relying on linguistic trickery or complex architecture to build my poems. My challenge is to write accessible poems that carry the heaviest weight load they can bear, poems that resonate with people, even people that don’t usually read poetry.
Bio: Donna Wallace (Lewisville, NC) is currently president of Winston Salem Writers and director of Poetry In Plain Sight, a state-wide initiative placing poetry in public spaces. Her poetry appears in Kakalak, The Paddock Review (forthcoming) Camel City Dispatch, Poetry In Plain Sight, A Funny Thing: A Poetry and Prose Anthology, Old Mountain Press, 2015. When she is not writing, she rides her bicycle all over the NC foothills.
Wild Goose Poetry Review 