poem: A weekly poem, read by the author.

"Memory"

By Judith Harris
Posted Tuesday, May 27, 2008, at 11:00 AM ET

Listen to Judith Harris read this poem.


Those years, after dogwoods
and purple phlox
the color of dyed Easter eggs,
the screen door rattling like a nerve …

On the porch, a cardboard box
for the stray cats
who stayed just long enough
to swell and litter.

So simple,
my mother, home
from the stenographer's pool,
starlings dangling like keys
over the rooftops,

the late hour pulling us in
like a magnet,
the moon baying,
the solitaire train of cards.

Nothing could budge us
from our own little island,
our own little cushions,
where we stayed,
eating tuna sandwiches,

just her and me,
floating on TV laughter,
her hand clasped over mine
like a first date's.

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Judith Harris is the author of two books of poetry, Atonement and The Bad Secret, and a critical book, Signifying Pain: Constructing and Healing the Self Through Writing.
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