I watch the plane approach the gate, the travelers disembark weary & bedraggled readjusting straps, shifting a bag’s weight one hand to another. A woman stops, abruptly turns to her teenage son, where is your bag? I watch as the drama unfolds— the bag left in the overhead compartment fault angrily volleyed though it’s clear it was the boy’s responsibility to remember. It is a loss easily recovered— the gate agent already on the phone— but what broke is broken still— his mother’s hands clenched, her voice a blade, while the boy still learning the shape of his life quietly averts his eyes.
Michelle Matz’s poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in numerous publications, including Mud Season Review, Atlanta Review, The Lascaux Review, Dodging the Rain, and Atticus Review. Her chapbook was a semifinalist in the Ledge Poetry Contest and was published in 2006. Her book, Acoustic Shadow, was recently published by Main Street Rag. Michelle lives in San Francisco where she is a high school dean.
02/13 / Poetry Reading and Conversation with visiting poet-in-residence Alafia Sessions + local writer Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello / The BBar at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7-8:30 pm EST / Free
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This one hurts (beautifully, though).
This cuts both ways. Beautiful. Thank you.