Chartreuse Socks
Gwenn A. Nusbaum
This is not a poem
unless living and dying is one.
But I will not talk of death,
only the gift of stillness from
a blanket of misty fog quelling
trembling trees, huddled almost
humbly, yet brimming with
unusual presence—contained
arousal, outside my mother’s home,
as though in some harmony with
her absence and the indelible
sweep of silence.
A mother is not a poem neatly
ended.
Then is a poem ever
finished?
Even now, her signature vibrates in
the Don Wynn painting of
a pensive nude wearing
chartreuse socks,
eyes gazing away from herself, to
an amorphous spot.
GWENN A. NUSBAUM has received a Pushcart Nomination and Honorary Mention for her poetry which has appeared in numerous literary journals and on-line publications including Confrontation, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Evening Street Review, The Louisville Review, The Phoenix, Plainsongs, Rattle, Verse Virtual, and Voices de la Luna. Gwenn is a life coach and creativity mentor, and a Board Trustee at the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association.