“Son, do you know how love should be begun?” The boy sat small
and listening and still. Slowly he shook his head. The old man leaned
closer and whispered: “A tree. A rock. A cloud.”
—Carson McCullers
He squats on blue-gray stones, arms
a bridge linking knees in unaware prayer.
His dog’s wet-toffee face sniffs his hope
while unnamed birds in a tree shift
a thousand leaves to chaos. He stands,
indulges in boyhood. There’s the pant
of his dog’s lullaby. A mother and father’s
voice in his head: he chooses
a flat round rock. Moving his wrist, he flicks
weight and all that’s at stake
across the water, trying
to mimic a heartbeat.
Marjorie Thomsen loves teaching others how to play with words and live more poetically in the world. She is the author of “Pretty Things Please” (Turning Point, 2016). Two poems from this collection were read on The Writer’s Almanac. One of Marjorie’s poems about hiking in a dress and high heels was made into a short animated film. She has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She is the recipient of poetry awards from the University of Iowa School of Social Work, Poetica Magazine, and others. Publications include Pangyrus, Parks and Points, Rattle, SWWIM, and Tupelo Quarterly. Marjorie has been a Poet in Residence in schools throughout New England. She is a psychotherapist and instructor at Boston University’s School of Social Work.
