BY MARIANNE BREMS
First published in InScribe Journal Issue #3 February 2022. Copyright is held by the author.
Familiarity lies in the angle
the daisies hold their white heads
above the walk,
the smell of magnolias
like my friend’s old house,
the way evening clouds
redraw the roundness of setting sun.
Each softens the bulk of strangeness
in a lesser known place.
With the coming of another day,
moisture settles in the early thickness
of morning fog,
shadows of madrone
absorbed before they begin.
No dark lenses between us
as a stranger stops to ask,
Have you seen the young ones in that nest?
This emerging mosaic
of familiar and unfamiliar
begins a conversation
with this place where no one yet loves me.
As the light bends with our presence,
somewhere a lock uncatches
in a door called home.
***
Marianne Brems is the author of the full length poetry collection Stepping Stones (2024) and three chapbooks. Her poems have also appeared in literary journals including The Bluebird Word, Front Porch Review, Remington Review, and Green Ink Poetry. Favorite poets include Kay Ryan, Ellen Bass, and Naomi Shihab Nye. She lives, cycles, and swims in Northern California. Website: www.mariannebrems.com.