Beth Gordon (Western Voices 2020)

Exclusive: Western Voices, 2020: Edited by Scott Thomas Outlar

Bio: Beth Gordon is a poet, mother and grandmother currently living in Asheville, NC. Her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net, Pushcart and the Orison Anthology. She is the author of two chapbooks: Morning Walk with Dead Possum, Breakfast and Parallel Universe (Animal Heart Press) and Particularly Dangerous Situation (Clare Songbird Publishing). She is Managing Editor of Feral, Assistant Editor of Animal Heart Press and Poetry Editor of Gone Lawn.

In Which I Contemplate Drowning in the 3^rd Oldest River on Earth

I am a curator of tears, sweetish-

spiced rituals of collect and capture,

barrels and teacups, tissues and trashcans,

invisible syllables discarded

in the crone’s well that grandfather first dug

in the ugly winter of ought seven,

when children of seven witnessed raw ice

for the first time in their swamp lives, frozen

water, brutal and pure, that changed the shape

of their hearts. When my upstairs

neighbor showered yesterday he forgot

to pull the barrier curtain inside,

his water crept through my halls, my ceiling

forever scarred with the path of failing

liquid and the maintenance man says wait

for it to dry while I hammer stainless

steel nails, a carpenter in witch’s shroud.

I translate cracks in my sliding glass door

while it storms as you drive west. I have

everything to say about tears, bring

out the old tin tub, let sun brew the rain,

immerse yourself into that photographed

day before you knew your own sacred name.

Setu, April 2020