Yesterday
over a recipe for meatballs
an earthquake jolted
the architecture of the kitchen
What could be happening in the world
bigger than this Lost Coast
without internet access
a retreat of writers
wandering words
under hats and pines
What insanity is still brewing
and how to love through it
poems and dogs and trees
the wheels of our bodies
sifting through untamed stories
with our pens
The earthquake
didn’t break us
or anything
everything stayed
on the shelves
Could it be the world is stable
for a moment
plates stacked
without question of fact
content or source
Grateful it’s Sunday
without the weight
of the newspaper’s
unanswered questions
Where is the epicenter
Where does the fracture begin
and how do we resist
and repair
how do we find
a bearable truth
beyond enemy
I drift through
a caffeinated morning
amongst bearded and braided poets
in everyday reflection
stare at the pale blue towel
hanging on the railing
where the red roof
is the slant of a country song
and someone begins to sing
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan Dambroff is a poet, performer, and teacher. Her poetry chapbook, “Conversations with Trees” was published in 2018 by Finishing Line Press. Her latest manuscript ,“A Chair Keeps the Floor Down”, dives deeply into her long career as a Special Eduucation teacher, and is now under submission. She has been published in many literary journals and anthologies, including “Civil Liberties United, Ghosts of the Holocaust, Stoneboat, Red Bird Chapbooks, and Earth’s Daughters. Her first book of poems, “Memory in Bone” was published in a limited letterpress edition in 1984 by Black Oyster Press. She performs throughout the Bay Area in Spoken Duets, a poetic collaboration with Chris Kammler.