Chrysalis

by Tamara Madison


Newly freed from high school
my daughter spends her evenings
alone in the living room
with Grey’s Anatomy. Life
is so different now, classes
at odd times, friends scattered
like jacks. Opaque as ever,
a deep well, she rests on the sofa
in blue TV light. I can almost see
her wings developing, intricate,
folded like an origami moth
within her close cocoon.

* * * * *

Tamara Madison is the author of the chapbook The Belly Remembers, and two full-length volumes of poetry, Wild Domestic and Moraine, all published by Pearl Editions. Her work has appeared in Chiron Review, The Worcester Review, A Year of Being Here, Nerve Cowboy, the Writer’s Almanac, and many other publications. A swimmer, dog lover and native of the southern California desert, she is thrilled to have recently retired from teaching English and French in a Los Angeles high school, and more thrilled still to be awaiting a second grandchild into the world.