April 1-7, 2019: Poetry from Jeni S. Friedman and Hiram Larew

Subway Balancing Act

A brown curly haired woman
sits in the subway car
holding an apple core. 
It’s browning
balanced between her 
left thumb and middle finger. 
She won’t drop it in the train.
She can’t maneuver to put it in her pocket. 
Holding it over her lap
she checks email with her right hand
until her stop arrives. 

Lucky

I’ve never been able to add right
Somehow for me one plus one turns into black wavy hair
    and all the stars up there – they’ve become
    eyes looking deep.
Even as a kid when I overheard someone counting
All I could think of was skin.
I am just estimated
Like how straw scatters in wind.
Things are almost too much for me –
When I dream of vast prairies
    or am in a crowd of luck
I’m stunned by so much desire.
In fact lately I’ve realized that
    as the tally is taken
I’m the chewed pencil.

Lucky first appeared in Little Patuxent Review