The Little Miami River
is my father
filling his shirts
and slippers
with the applause
of pulses sipping
mudbank coffee
with the precision
of turnpike truckers
dabbling ducks
sliding his rook
down the tiled path
of black and white
whistling chess drunk
painting our canoe
camouflage in
the garage but first
wiping its dust
with a cheesecloth
tossing over the 80 oz.
popcorn bash-bags
like an angler
braving the summer
Southwestern Ohio
roller coaster
of typhoon peaks
and whirls only
to placate the heart
of his little girl
before silt-slow and
damned to age
or emptied tumbling
into the rapids
of dementia’s big
river mouth
while I am distracted
by the shimmer
and feather of hooks
Earning My Rachel
for Kevin
Doing dishes
I imagine the surprise
of arms
reaching from behind
to squeeze me into
warmth.
Lusty water
hoses each bowl
muting the 6:00
door-slam
familiar wingtip grand
key arrival.
Heat steams
my glasses blind
to a foot-step figure
approaching
my yellow-thick gloves
numb to skin
to wrists.
It seems
I’ve been standing
in this spot
for seven years
twisting purple sponges
around the insides
of cup after cup
what have I been
scrubbing
how hot can I take can
I make the water
punishing
I’ve watched
sudden rains scream
staccato
loneliness at my window
I’ve heard
the giggles of children
fumbling children
in the garden
loneliness.
I’ve felt
this earth shake
to get my attention
let my hope
at this sink
these same suds lemon
mint lavender
ancient and owing
like Jacob who
worked seven years
earning his beloved.
I dream of
turning off the faucet
ungloving
my hands lifting
this desert heart
earning my Rachel
but wake to
another morning of
ceramic and glass and
earthenware Leahs.
Candice Kelsey's work has appeared in such journals as Poet Lore, The Cortland Review, and North Dakota Quarterly. She was a finalist for Poetry Quarterly's Rebecca Lard Award and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her first full-length manuscript is forthcoming with Finishing Line Press. An educator of 20 years' standing, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.