Membrane (by Tom Baird)

Membrane

A red slipper
footless
under the stool.
A red towel
molted to the floor.
The damp breath
of shampoo
still hanging
in the air.
The clock
drips its seconds
into the sink,
one by one,
counting the long pulse
when you are away.
The bathroom
is never empty of you,
like a skin
hung open,
moist,
warm,
waiting
for your bones
to arrive.

* * * * *

(c) 2008 by Tom Baird
all rights reserved by the poet
included here by permission

We gratefully acknowledge the clevelandpoetics blog’s weekly “Blind Review Friday” series, where an earlier version of this poem first appeared (http://clevelandpoetics.blogspot.com/).

“I’m not sure what to say in a bio, but I’m 57 and retired and live in Stow.  I can be found at the monthly Water Street Gallery readings in Kent and I credit Maj Ragain, <ST1Alice Cone</ST1, and Kat Blackbird</ST1 with whatever good comes through in my poems. Poets I admire are the Chinese, Adrienne Rich, Stanley Kunitz, Billy Collins, Ted Kooser, Kim Addonizio, Sharon Olds, Neruda and James Wright, to name but a few.” – Tom Baird

Reading Li Po (by Tom Baird)

Reading Li Po

In morning fog I finger stones like words,
place them in my pocket to begin my own poem.
Silver trees press inward toward my chair.
The sky drains to surround me.
The stones remind me of Li Po’s mountains.
I sit with him, waiting to vanish.




* * * * *

(c) 2008 by Tom Baird
all rights reserved by the poet
included here by permission

We gratefully acknowledge the clevelandpoetics blog’s weekly “Blind Review Friday” series, where this poem first appeared (http://clevelandpoetics.blogspot.com/).

“I’m not sure what to say in a bio, but I’m 57 and retired and live in Stow.  I can be found at the monthly Water Street Gallery readings in Kent and I credit Maj Ragain, <ST1Alice Cone</ST1, and Kat Blackbird</ST1 with whatever good comes through in my poems. Poets I admire are the Chinese, Adrienne Rich, Stanley Kunitz, Billy Collins, Ted Kooser, Kim Addonizio, Sharon Olds, Neruda and James Wright, to name but a few.” – Tom Baird