My name is Blue Glass
and stars shine in me
nightly.
My name is Song on the Wind
and when I lift your hair and whisper
in your ear, you shiver and smile,
you raise your hand to touch me
but I am already
gone.
My name is Anemone and life trembles
in my secret depths.
My name is Jade, cool
with shadows, cool as the long
pouring of history
over stones.
Some days
I walk into the marketplace
my long hair flying
my high heels stomping
my slim legs scissoring shapes
out of each moment,
and I taste the rain and the clouds,
the plums and the nectarines.
I carry away a loaf
of the darkest bread.
Nothing
can stop me.
The dogs run with me
especially the one
with the lopsided grin
and the red bandanna
around his neck, and we go
to the river, the deep
green river flowing
between stone walls,
and the dogs bark, dancing
up and down the quai,
and the ducks watch them
expressionless
and I walk into history
just like another day
just like another spring day
with the windows open
and the flags flying
and everyone out and ready
to join the parade,
and my name is Swiftly Turning Bird
diving
into the water
About the Author: Wendy McVicker lives and writes in the beautiful green hills of Athens, Ohio. In her poetry, she seeks "to honor memory and the slow, deep process of knowing." Her poems have appeared in Appalachian Women's Journal, Confluence, Riverwind, and Whiskey Island, among others. She is a teaching poet with the Ohio Arts Council's Arts in Education program, and has been inciting poetry in schools, libraries, galleries, and community centers since 1987.
Copyright © 1999 by Wendy McVicker. The poem may not be reproduced in any form without the author's express written permission.