Another Weather Report
By Kari Gunter-Seymour
I want to say it has rained for weeks. Rain, such an easy metaphor for grief. All those stages, storms spinning up from distant dust— emotional whack-a-mole. Aren’t we all equal parts tender and not? What about clouds of irrational hoopla creeping unbridled up the spine, anchoring inside the throat, lodging countless bids to break free— one careless slip loosing a shriek of crazed birds skyward? Nights, I replay footage— time travels torn from my marrow, mirages gone rogue and sour, curse the wisps of nostalgia I cannot touch. I wear my mother’s predilections, my sister’s thirst, answer to the hunger of being left behind, Hard as I try, I cannot love these storms, their beaded duplicity of air wagging a wet finger in my face. Death convolutes what’s ill faring, the creek bitter cold with last year's snow. I can’t stop holding my breath.
Kari Gunter-Seymour, Poet Laureate of Ohio, focuses on lifting up underrepresented voices including incarcerated adults and women in recovery. She is the founder/executive director of the Women of Appalachia Project and editor of its anthology Women Speak. Her poetry collection, Alone in the House of My Heart, received the "2023 Book of the Year Award" from American Book Fest. Find her work in Verse Daily, World Literature Today, The New York Times, and Poem-a-Day.
4/10 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence Tyler Mills / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free
4/10 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence Tyler Mills + local writer Jennifer Litt / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:30 pm EST / Free
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kari, this is really something. love.