Doug Ramspeck

Solace

 

Our mothers lean against
the doorframe of the decades

and speak in a vigil of blue
cigarette smoke, smiling

like a cloud of bees rising
above a summer meadow.

And the light through
the windows blinds them,

and they imagine that every
heartbeat is a numerology,

that memory is forever
itinerant and vague.

But sometimes they reach
out to touch the illuminated air,

and the glow is a face
or a hand or a fluttering

or something buried so deeply
it cannot be excavated. And maybe

the smoke becomes a bird
that batters the ceilings

and walls until our mothers
whisper hush hush.

 

Doug Ramspeck is the author of nine poetry collections, one collection of short stories, and a novella. His most recent book, Blur, received the Tenth Gate Prize. Individual poems have appeared in journals that include The Southern Review, Kenyon Review, Slate, and The Georgia Review. He is a three-time recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award.