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Barbara Buckman StraskoNovember 30, 2018

My mother’s lamps have better light than mine:
with three settings, they sit on tables at the best angles.

Even though much of my time is spent reading,
I’ve never understood how to make things comfortable.

I wanted to live my life split open, awake,
walking through the slanted light and hard rains.

When as a child I almost drowned, I didn’t know it,
so I rose to the top then sank back down again,

curious about underwater things. Later, I cooked
brown rice and brewed huckleberry tea,

swam in the Delaware canals near New Hope,
and when the accident at Three Mile Island occurred,

I wrote a letter, Dear Sir or Madman:
Many days I wanted to end my life

but when my diagnosis came, I only
wanted to live.

At dawn today the frogs at the lily pond

clear their throats as if they have not
spoken in a thousand years.

In their voices I hear pain, knowing no one
listened to me when I spoke long ago

I see the day rise outside my window—
light on the edge of garden shears I hold.

More: Poetry
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