Five Poems

tempest \ˈtem-pəst\ n.

 

a  season,       rush  ,

 

furious   drum,

 

sometimes used

as   love

 

 

 

bird \ˈbərd\ n., v.

 

a fowl;             a flying.

 

among    men, a game.

 

A girl

 

to thieve.

 

 

 

mud \ˈməd\ n., v.

 

a deep grunting

 

charged           with disease   or

 

a long, slender

 

pair of legs

side by side

 

with spiders    .

 

 

To bury

 

in moist   soft earth

 

after rain.

 

 

 

coal \ˈkōl\ n.

 

wood               burning

 

in the language of    oil,        a fire

 

called fossil   .             divided

 

 

 

 

wire \ˈwī(-ə)r\ n.

 

Slender   metal    to   pass  between

 

or  bridge suspended from                  shot

 

the course cloth           strained   ,

 

arbitrar  y as countries   ,

 

lines    across field  s   .
 
 
 

M. L. Brown is the author of Drought, winner of the Claudia Emerson Poetry Chapbook Award. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in various journals including The Valparaiso Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, The Pittsburgh Poetry Review, and PMS PoemMemoirStory. When not working on her poetry, Ms. Brown devotes her time to raising funds for a non-profit women’s health care organization.