Day 26, Poet 26: Ronda Piszk Broatch

Chaos Theory for Beginners
 
Listen   there is yet a chance at madness   to become
the lioness in a field of moon lilies   For words to push
 
up from the known deep   grow gills   form feet   wing
through water’s skin   We talk of doors   but really
 
we are only breaking walls   Listen   your eyes are so sky
in that hurricane dress   the hugest two moons I’ve ever
 
Everything’s happening so slowly fast it’s hard to discern
who needs repair   and who is just mean enough
 
to survive   I mean   isn’t chaos merely a loss   space-
defined   the names of all the birds floating up
 
like sheets freed from their lines   and aren’t we all
standing here on that flattest piece of earth   shielding
 
our eyes in our stormy clothes   lilies at our brows
stirring a little heat beneath our skirts   just jonesing to rise 


Previously published in Tahoma Literary Review.

Poet and photographer, Ronda Piszk Broatch is the author of Lake of Fallen Constellations, (MoonPath Press, 2015), Shedding Our Skins, and Some Other Eden, (2005). Seven-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Ronda is the recipient of an Artist Trust GAP Grant, a May Swenson Poetry Award finalist, and former editor of Crab Creek Review. Her journal publications include Atlanta Review, Prairie Schooner, Fourteen Hills, Mid-American Review, and Fire On Her Tongue: An Anthology of Contemporary Women's Poetry (Two Sylvias Press).