“Listening for the Rain” by Wendy Erd, published in It’s a Crooked Road, but Not Far, to the House of Flowers, released in November 2023, has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Please enjoy the poem, and feel free to leave a comment.
Listening for the Rain
by Wendy Erd
Everyday is like this,
the short and long of forgetting:
a man with a walking stick, a limp,
his daughter in a red sweatshirt,
crossing the berm.
Ten years from now
will they remember
that the beach they walked
smelled of rain,
that drops made small ticks
on his ballcap,
feathers on cheeks, set
diamonds in her hair?
If we could remember not only the rain
but the weight of the damp jacket,
not only the jacket but the ease
our bodies have moving through time
beside another
without the word why.
On a cold, salt-wet afternoon,
the vapor of our breath
rising ahead of us
trailing behind.
from It’s a Crooked Road, but Not Far, to the House of Flowers by Wendy Erd (The Poetry Box, 2023)
nominated for The Pushcart Prize by Shawn Aveningo Sanders, editor/publisher
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