YEARS GONE
…..
Years gone, yet the memory lingers like mist above the mud-smell
of the lakeshore, in any listless gray sky. After the spring rains,
reservoir flooded, the waterline rose to swallow the trunk of the
eucalyptus. We shimmied the great bodies of their limbs, leaped
from their low branches into the silt-water.
…..
Ashore, we smelled of mud. My mouth pressed to the hollow bowl
beneath your sternum—that fragrance of marsh on your skin, the
coming of my womanhood.
……
Mournful grebe-call echoes out over the water. For you, I’d have
crossed deserts on my hands and knees.
…….
This poem is from the chapbook Blue California Sky by B. L. Bruce (Finishing Line Press), and is available at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/blue-california-sky-by-b-l-bruce/
Award-winning author and two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, California poet Bri Bruce (writing as B. L. Bruce) has been called the “heiress of Mary Oliver.” With a bachelor’s degree in literature and creative writing from the University of California at Santa Cruz, her work has appeared in dozens of anthologies, magazines, and literary publications. Her poetry most recently appears in The Lakeshore Review, Red Wolf Journal, Bivouac Magazine, The Sunlight Press, Riverstone Literary Journal, and Gone Lawn, among many others. Bruce is the recipient of the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize and the PushPen Press Pendant Prize for Poetry, as well as the author of four books: The Weight of Snow, 28 Days of Solitude, The Starling’s Song, and Measures. Her highly praised debut collection, The Weight of Snow, was the 2014 International Book Awards poetry category finalist and the 2014 USA Best Book Awards poetry category finalist. The Starling’s Song, released in February of 2016, was selected as Honorable Mention in the Pacific Rim Book Festival. Blue California Sky is her fifth book.
The Paddock Review 