Karen Kubin's poem "Lake Harriet, 2005" originally appeared in Ruminate's Issue 53: Shelter.
-------------
Lake Harriet, 2005
By Karen Kubin
Now the rain
comes in shards
breaking the stillness of lake,
of end-of-myself,
of mirror, of window hiding
everything below—
razor blades of light
slicing holy, wholly
through thick air,
blades I pull in
through my skin
and suck ragged into my lungs.
How many years does it take
to learn to say I don’t want this,
or, This is not what I meant?
Not enough, yet.
For today there is just this storm,
the unleashing,
the words I found the strength to say,
like, All is bright in this darkness.
Words like, I want, and I hope,
and O sharp joy,
I have been waiting for you
since I saw clouds gathering on the earliest shore.
-------------
Photo by Ravi Pinisetti on Unsplash
I enjoyed reading “Lake Harriet, 2005.” The tercets work very well, and I like the playfulness with language. Best wishes!
Comments will be approved before showing up. We don't allow comments that are disrespectful or personally attack our blog writers.
Alison McGhee
March 11, 2021
I love this poem. So beautiful.