Two poems by Mary Buchinger

In Babel Years

  many hands 

not the lightest of work 

but side-by-side 

group project 

all in this together 

pulley and lever 

garden and sewer 

stone upon stone 

we built up and up 

a heaven to fill! 

  round and round 

through rain and snow 

driven by what 

tomorrow would hold 

shoulder to shoulder 

boulder upon boulder 

Heave ho! ball and chain 

breakfast and supper

we labored and drank 

we loved one another 

and how our tower grew  

what fruit this height 

heady delight 

   till one day we stood 

all of us in a circle 

each looking out 

into a different vista 

and who has words 

for that?

Against Invisibility

I depend on birds 

        to flock and fly 

                     at my approach 

the doe to stare at me 

flick her tail and snort 

to warn her family 

        I’m full of years  they overflow 

what’s wild tell me I am not stone

Mary Buchinger, whose recent books include The Book of Shores and Virology from Lily Poetry Review Books, and Navigating the Reach from Salmon Poetry, teaches at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Her poetry appears in AGNI, Nimrod, Plume, Salamander, Salt Hill, Seneca Review, and elsewhere. www.MaryBuchinger.com