Promise
/Taunja Thomson
Evening spills on the carpet
slow spreading
like ink
I think of cereal & molecule
season & cup cow & fracture
pears spilling from the tree
during our neighbors’ harvest
the curtain that I open to watch
twilight fired over limbs
& laughter
The next morning I carry the day
in my skirt like so many
ducklings bubbling & peeping
& fuzzy with promise
Author’s Note: I went to bed in a bad mood one evening. Then I ended up having a dream about how as a child I used to watch our neighbors harvest the pears from their tree every summer—always lots of people, lots of laughter, so much fun to watch from my bedroom window as the twilight wore on. The first thing I did when I woke up the next morning, in a much better mood, was write this poem about how some memories can change our attitudes for the better & how important it is to hang onto them.
Three of t.m. thomson’s poems have been nominated for Pushcart Awards. She is co-author of Frame and Mount the Sky (2017) and author of Strum and Lull (2019), which placed in Golden Walkman’s 2017 chapbook competition, and The Profusion (2019). Her passions include kickboxing, playing in mud, and savoring art. You can find her writer’s page at https://www.facebook.com/TaunjaThomsonWriter/.
