[once I married]

By Karen Earle

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once   I married
light   my fingers

ringed   iridescent
now   humming

bird-full
the Copper-tip

or Falling Star 
summer begins

its firefly-dark
finale   hemlock and

queen anne’s lace
pirate   fields and woods

where   sun snakes coil
oily   shade-pools

nearby   a dog
barks   its wild

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Karen Earle is a private practice psychotherapist. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in various journals, including The GW Review, Chaffin Journal, Chaminade, The Denver Quarterly Literary Review, Hudson Valley Echoes, The Last Millweed Anthology (Tupelo Press), and Sugar House Review. She was awarded a Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing fellowship and has attended several Colrain Poetry Manuscript conferences.

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