And the universe resounds

by Brooke Herter James


Look what I can do!

proclaims the light outside
the kitchen window
where I stand still
in pajamas waiting
for the coffee to brew.
The hillside is ablaze,
Rothko orange beneath
a sky so deep slate blue,
I want to wake my husband.
Then the phone buzzes,
and a photo appears
of my six-week old grandson
in a turquoise-striped onesie,
smiling full on
for the first time.

Look what I can do!


* * * * *

Brooke Herter James is the author of two poetry chapbooks, The Widest Eye (2016) and Spring took the Long Way Around (2019) and one children’s book, Why Did the Farmer Cross the Road? (2017). Her poems have appeared in Orbis and Rattle (forthcoming), as well as the online publications Poets Reading the News, New Verse News, Flapper Press and Typishly. She lives on small farm in Vermont with her husband, four hens, two donkeys and a dog. Postcards from Montana is her soon-to-be-published collection of prose, poetry and photographs.