The Paddock Review

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A Poem by Stephanie E. Glass

table setting

…

….

this table is full-to-bursting: books spread in disarray,

half-written songs crowd the corners, a cup of flowers:

i picked them as i walked through the badlands—

a place where people say nothing grows—

and then there comes the food

and the wine

poured into wax-paper dixie cups.

this table is full-to-bursting. to think 

last year

….

i stood in this same room 

complaining of all the emptiness

….

This poem is from the chapbook the light can be something you love all on your own by Stephanie E. Glass (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-light-can-be-something-you-love-all-on-your-own-by-stephanie-e-glass/


Stephanie Glass lives in rural Nebraska with her son, Milo. Together with a constellation of loved ones—including a lively clowder of cats—they celebrate the joy that infuses the rhythm of their daily lives. Glass frequently disappears into the Nebraska Plains and Badlands for hiking and backpacking trips. In addition to nature, she draws inspiration for her poetry from literature, motherhood, queer identity, political activism, nature, post-traumatic growth following domestic violence, and the healing relationships she has built with those she loves. Her work has appeared in Rattle Poetry Magazine, The Quarter(ly) Vol. XIII: This Is Where We Are Now, Writers in the Attic’s Anthology, and the Moonstone Center for the Arts anthology: Go Back to Where You Came From.