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In My Room — Poem #1
In My Room #1
By Jane Tawel
April 18, 2020
*
In my room,
that I painted by my own hand
in muted shades of green and coral and tan,
In a year when I was young and trending colors intrigued me,
And my shoulders didn’t ache until evening fell
And I stirred at the stove for the children’s hour.
*
In my room
that has been nestled in this old house for a hundred years and more,
Even before my birth somewhere due east from here;
In this room
Were lives that mattered to someone else
and still sometimes seem to ghost the air here.
*
Whose faint lines are traced in long-gone breathed circles
Whispering still upon the windows here?
*
I long to kiss those tiny mouths that fogged the glass,
And grasp damp, sticky fingers, that mother once did chide,
For etching fleeting messages of love.
*