Lee Ann Schaffer

Tell me that you weren’t hungry that day.
Tell me that’s not what got you to stay.
Seven seeds don’t seem like quite enough
Reason to leave a mother’s deep love.
...

The child who hides behind laughter
The child who reaches out with tears
The child who no one looks after
Who runs away when someone nears
...

</>A vine grew up around me.
It sounds fantastical, I know, but
It's true.
At first I liked it:
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My head had howled
With the words whirling
Through it that night
As we sailed swiftly
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Within a small spider's dream
Are we what to us we seem?
Do we really matter much?
Are we gods he longs to touch?
...

Sapphire on midnight
On wings that waltz,
Polka, two-step, and jig
Then land on my arm
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We shall be
Sea and strand:
No matter
Changing tides,
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It drifts gently down on the tips of your ears
Then feather floats inside:
The beckoning whisper.
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I wish I couldn’t remember

The resonance of your voice,
Your silly laugh,
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Standing on the edge of a cliff;
Toes hanging over the edge;
Ahead, a view that reaches in
To grab all breath away;
...

I pore over the pages
Slowly - very slowly -
Savoring the taste of the words in my mouth.
...

Not a proper pillow
For a head,

A thing to separate
...

I left my tears where they’d
Fallen on the kitchen table
Where I’d sat writing to you.
...

I take my pen
And outline each of the stains
My tears left on the paper
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Bound in lace,
First snow,
Nothing to offer
But that destined to
...

When childish hands made me stand,
I gloried in the sun and surrounding laughter;
Never knowing that, as both would fade,
I’d look longingly out to the sea.
...

Through earthbound dreams her feet have traveled;
Along the planet’s surface, forced to crawl;
Or to struggle against the water or sink under it...
Until tonight, this different night,
...

The day ran
Like a bottle of
Fine, rare, red wine
Poured into my hands.
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You are some lush Italian vineyard
Into which I have stolen,
So juicy, glistening, swollen ripe
That I can not resist
...

From under the ruffled
Nightgown hem
Slender alabaster ankles
Are carried by
...