WHITE LILIES Love me, I ask of you.Press your mouth to mine,I want to say.The contours of our limbsare restless. We throw ourselves from the houseat sundown, wander down the hill,pass the milk-white folds of the liliesyawning and rising along the fence.I brush my body against theirs. At once, the murmur of rainsoundlike a stone [...]
MOCKINGBIRD As it often doesmoving by memory,your body finds mine, fitspuzzled into angles and curvesin those hushed hours—were it not for the mockingbirdscreaming into the moonlit,slate-grey sky. I envy you,your unbothered sleep.No torment. No great,stirring voicein your mindscreaming,screaming. c. B. L. BruceFirst published by VisitantFollow Bruce on Instagram @thepoesis and Twitter @the_poesis
Throwback to my two poems, "The Leaving" and "Fragility," which appear in my award-winning collection The Weight of Snow, first published in The 2River View. THE LEAVING By the heavy glass doors,you kneel to gather scattered clothes,your naked silhouette a shadowagainst the violet dawn.I know this shape your body makesagainst the sky. A leaf falls [...]
In a similar vein as her award-winning debut collection The Weight of Snow, Bruce’s newest compilation of poetry explores the themes of love, loss, and nature--both human and not. Written in its entirety during a twenty-eight day stay in a remote cabin in the forests of Northern California, B. L. Bruce’s chapbook, The Starling’s Song, affirms [...]
Below is an excerpt from my latest publication in Damselfly Press's issue 30--my poem titled "Pulse" that is set to appear in my next collection, The Starling's Song (2015) PULSE Listen to the Poem Eating blue mussels from the perfect domes of their shells, you twist a slice of orange into the foam of your [...]
Along with six other works, the following poem titled "Clay" was accepted into Tayen Lane Publishing's Poems from Conflicted Hearts: An Anthology scheduled for release in March of 2014!CLAYI come knocking, find you in the garden looking not more than a child, eating the sweet petals of the guava blossoms,bending to sweep the stone pathway.You drift [...]
May dawn coming—a thin rain falls. I tread a pathin low marsh grass, unsteady in a gust,wondering if you have forgottenour nakedness, frantic like children in the cold,the sun rising beyond the dark woods,the dreams that twist nearer,the splitting apart of our souls.I listen to [...]
In fall,the Big Leaf maples warm in color,and in time will let gotheir dying leaves.By December, the ungiving stalksof the American Sweetgum are bare and still, even in wind.We walk beside the woodyardlate one afternoon,and my mother says, “The leaves are turning on the alders,” and nods.Her skin, the best clock, a sundial in the angled light;I do not know her [...]
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