Backward & Forward By NSA They say the past is gone turn away leave it behind & yet: my smile confident & dazzling schools me. I stare at myself 20 years ago newly wed ready & surrounded by my childhood & yet: the hesitant now no path ahead no map for […]
Category: Poetry
I’m a Sharp Shooter
I’m a Sharp Shooter by Nancy Schatz Alton My student says her brain is a place made of boxes, everything that happens sorted into a box. She dips in stored wealth, decorates pages with hand-picks treasures from gorgeous open squares. This matches a found cartoon of a brain: three levels with boxes on […]
Making Something Out of Nothing
Making Something Out of Nothing by Nancy Schatz Alton you, clutching your rifle in thin fall snow, are an instrument of some vital love. –Emily Van Kley I feel not so vital lately even as the world proves me wrong: bylines, loving daughters, a husband who makes me breakfast the way I pull words […]
Love’s Recovery
Love’s Recovery by Nancy Schatz Alton I don’t let go of the hot August sun. It sears rejection in weary concrete. I do turn to my daughter’s request. I wash her chlorine tangled hair in our kitchen sink. She leans back, mimics the beautician’s parlor, bright blue washcloth under her tender neck. She and I […]
Listen
I’m looking for where the smile is easy while still trying to drop the baggage. If only it were as easy as releasing pretend suitcases. I know the cost of clenching: holding fast to what no longer works. It’s amazing how my brain circles hovers is that how a hawk hunts? Are birds of prey […]
Listen
Listen by Nancy Schatz Alton I’m looking for where the smile is easy while still trying to drop the baggage. If only it were as easy as releasing pretend suitcases. I know the cost of clenching: holding fast to what no longer works. It’s amazing how my brain circles hovers is that how a […]
Flip & Fly
Flip & Fly by Nancy Schatz Alton I want to kick my legs up into a headstand maybe a handstand flip over into a backbend my friend’s hands catching me the lawn green my breathe fast, alive no years looped in tunnel-snags oh, strange corroded pathways, mysterious brain. I want to stand on the […]
Julio
Julio By Nancy Schatz Alton I am pressing the blankets of our days into the box of dirt. I am watching you shovel the dirt onto the Cash & Carry box. What did I carry into the house with this box? Olive oil, ground coffee, baggies, 2000 baggies. You carry the box out with precious […]
Strong
Strong By Nancy Schatz Alton She’s sure so often now. Flashing behind us: nights spent wavering wavering with me figuring out how to lead. There was a sweetness in the wavering: our limbs tangled together as we slept as soon as I gave myself over to her need. Now she dances in the living room […]
Rondo for the Light
Rondo for the Light By Nancy Schatz Alton The bumper flies & lands away from me. The man offers me blame. Just like that: I’m done. Really, that’s how you’re going to play it? We’re alive, we’re stepping out of our cars, photographing details & numbers. His jeep, jet black & asking me to believe […]