by Sheila E. Murphy
Lace, distaste for the simplicity
arrived until I could hold still
just as I was, astride
the terror of change.
I fluted my way to stars
I had not known, I reached
for your sense of hearing,
the one that lifted me
to what we were together
what we are and what we
will be named until
the terrible drive into away
learning that there is no one
who can shape or understand
the syllables of invitation
to come nearer to the me you made.
Sheila E. Murphy’s poems have appeared in Poetry, Hanging Loose, Fortnightly Review, and numerous other publications. Her most recent book is Permission to Relax (BlazeVOX Books, 2023). She received the Gertrude Stein Award for Letters to Unfinished J. (Green Integer Press, 2003). Murphy’s book titled Reporting Live from You Know Where (2018) won the Hay(na)Ku Poetry Book Prize Competition from Meritage Press (U.S.A.) and xPress(ed) (Finland). Her Wikipedia page can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Murphy.
Little Leaf Literary Journal 