Self-Portrait by Nancy Schatz Alton Would you believe me now If I told you I was saved? We all slow down for the wreckage Crane our necks Say, Did you see that? I see inside the spiral that never Unwinds until it does does rewind All over the innocent A victim of myself […]
Category: Poetry
Ghost Me
Ghost Me by Nancy Schatz Alton For Peter I am all the people who are no longer here Even as I am not How could I be? Yet I am a ghost Yet I call your ghost I call your river-rock-climbing body back From the grave From the rail line From the box car From […]
This Is What You Want
This Is What You Want by Nancy Schatz Alton The one rectangle of sunlight warming my skin as I type words. Light memories that brush against how sunlight freezes within the wounding moment. To lick my wounds, to hold my ache, to be tender with my tender self. For the music to move up through […]
Let The Water Run
Let The Water Run by Nancy Schatz Alton We made a complete ocean & this is a lie. We made a creek that dried up in the drought. You told me what I wanted to hear until you were tired of talking. Whenever I forgive myself for my part I’m forgiving essential elements of myself. […]
Magpie
Magpie by Nancy Schatz Alton The magpie has my mind. Her tail—what is it for? Her color scheme, her flight, her wing span. How she perches not for me but for me. How the green hills—treeless—exist not for me but for me. How her contours etch a scene I want to capture. Magpie flight, white […]
Comfort
Comfort by Nancy Schatz Alton The work of my life is love. It’s a self-centered ache that I offer you on a platter: love. This work the world likes to pretend is beside the point it’s the round point of my pencil telling you listen, love: I love you as you are your cranky self. […]
Want
Want by Nancy Schatz Alton Every part of me hurts from wanting From making myself rise daily To see about this wanting I’m done tamping myself down You see we’re painting The dining room half-red/half pleasing white A marriage of just enough mayonnaise to let the want scream I want my home to signal you […]
A Lean Crew
A Lean Crew by Nancy Schatz Alton The only sturdy thing is my indecision My waffling between menu items Always invited laughter When I needed to know: French toast or waffles. Yet mirth held its own blessing Another vantage point In a world fraught With catastrophe. What if falling is funny? Our most irritating habits: […]
Found
Found by Nancy Schatz Alton “I am not a saint/ Because I keep trying to be a sound, something/ You will remember/ Once you’ve lived long enough not to believe in heaven.” -Jericho Brown, from “Deliverance” I’ve noticed if I hum I’m closer to being in tune But I don’t need to reach the right […]
Want + Need
I want to be a collage artist. I want to be in two places at once. I want to be a poetry professor and the woman who sits in the school while her daughter attends 6 tutoring sessions a week. I want to go backwards and nab an MFA at age 26. Or forward and […]