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Poetry | June 2016

Cutting Back the Fig

By Carol Denson

Wrath-singed, my father’s teeth set
to say what he would say
with brash, crackling faith

 

if he could just remember it:
like a creed,
a cradle song,
lulling death

 

as he remembers:
the breezeless evening steps, the fig overhanging, its leaves
growing into the path to slap him
with their light, sticky hairs

 

until he cuts them:
the strewn branches full of fruit tinged with ripening
and then she approaches, seeing
his arms still lifting the nippers

 

and he watches:
how she turned, back straight beneath
her two gray braids wound into knots
low at the nape behind her ears

 

the seething flees his muscles, the weak snap
of the final branch sickens,
and he says nothing, waving away
memory’s brittle lick on the neck,
brushing aside the weightless slap
of what’s forty years gone.

2 replies on “Cutting Back the Fig”

Ute Carsonsays:
June 16, 2016 at 3:23 pm

A poem should be clad in imagery and at the same time speak to the emotions. Carol Denson’s poem “Cutting Back the Fig” does both. It is a well crafted and engaging poem and I have repeated some phrases today in my head…breezeless evening steps…the seething flees from his muscles…memory’s brittle lick on the neck… beautiful!!!

Reply
Carol Densonsays:
August 29, 2022 at 2:34 pm

Thank you, Ute. I’m happy it resonated with you.

Reply

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