————————————————————————————————Mary Leader
————————————————————————————————2004 Honda Civic
————————————————————————————————country roads near
————————————————————————————————Norman, Oklahoma
Once, sunset glowed for eight or nine seconds
below night, when, tired and open, I was
coming straight home following a good talk….
Once, night floated for ten or twelve seconds
on daybreak, following a sleepless night,
with Lydia, my cat of nineteen years,
in pain from renal failure, beside me….
Euthanasia. Sweet dainty cat, and shy,
being taken, away from home, onward.
Both times, my mother swooped over my car.
So low I flinched at such a fast gliding
shape. But what it was—an owl—registered
only in seconds’ retrospect. Now in
retrospect on retrospect, I remain
convinced her mind reached mine. In a single
intake of breath without means of letting
it out. Subject without predicate, say
mist afloat in oak trees——-— wind——-— branch say
saying——-— feathery spray of blood——-— and
buffalo skull in white alkaline sun’s
template——-— saying gentle scent of pollen
and slide of water spider. A thousand
thousand nominals saying what she knows:
The world is very old and shallow breathes—
————————————————————————————————916 Oakbrook Drive
————————————————————————————————Norman, Oklahoma
————————————————————————————————Winter 2021
Still, I grieve for Lydia, whose formal
name, by the way, was rarely used in life.
She knew she was loved as “Liddle Lyddy.”
If, then, some sad time hence, you should happen
upon my elegy titled “Double
Visitation,” know that Owl’s messages,
delivered in italics, descend from
various works of the largely unknown
poet Katharine H. Privett, my mother.
————————————————————————————————Glen Gathering
————————————————————————————————Asheville, North Carolina
————————————————————————————————Summer 2022
Mother, great news! The workshop really loved
all your language, especially the line
where I revealed (by fiddling with your line
breaks, ha!) “found” iambic pentameter,
“enhancing” your beautiful poesis:
The world is very old [/] and shallow breathes.
————————————————————————————————macOS Monterey
————————————————————————————————from a file punningly
————————————————————————————————labeled “Motherlode”
————————————————————————————————xSummer 2022 cont.
Quote
——-—
——-— Long Illness
——-— She moves her colored pills around
——-— as God, his stars and planets:
——-— days, counted and contained.
——-— She hears the clock tick all night long;
——-— the program of its logic
——-— lodges in her brain.
———————— She watches dry weeds in the wind,
———————— that shrink before
———————— the cold and winnowing.
———————— She knows the world is very old
———————— and shallow breathes. As blade
———————— to whetstone, on and on,
———————— its sleep is shaped. By invalid
———————— routines, she cuts pain’s tongue
———————— until it cannot speak.
Unquote
—————————————————————————————————KHP, 1991
————————————————————————————————Interrupted Chant
————————————————————————————————Fall 2023
breathes the world is very old and shallow (breathes
the world is very old and shallow breathes (the
world is very old and shallow breathes the (world
is very old and shallow breathes the world (is
very old and shallow breathes the world is (ve-
ry old and shallow breathes the world is ve (ry
old and shallow breathes the world is very (old
and shallow breathes the world is very old (and
shallow breathes the world is very old and shal-
————————————————————————————————Owl who—silent—glides
————————————————————————————————Winter 2027
Who, pray, was the “she” in “Long Illness”? I
cannot tell you. I do not know. Mother
watched many women enduring long illness,
sure she endured such herself, and she died
some time ago. Years younger than myself.
No asking the poet to name names now.
————————————————————————————————Undated Fragment
Clouds in formation, noun and noun, and none
caring to rain, and instead making way
for the stars, the same old stars, to come on.
Mary Leader’s fifth book, The Distaff Side (Shearsman), included poems about her late mother, also a poet. The sequence published here has a place in her sixth book, The Wood That Will Be Used, forthcoming from Shearsman in 2024. She writes and lives in Norman, Oklahoma.
Image courtesy of Richard Lee, via Unsplash.
