National Poetry Month #19

When We Were Poets

Language wasn’t ashamed of us.

We lived like our poems,

nailed words into a chair

if we dreamed of a chair.

We listened to the rain and remembered

speech is a gift each time.

We put it all on the line, every poem

necessary as a button.

We knew our purpose. We stood like elms:

didn’t plaster our names everywhere,

we unpeeled ourselves to write

epithalamia for heaven marrying earth

in a million meadows. Life was big enough!

We could wait out the winter

for real plums.
- Shelby Allen