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Harmonize
Cathy Porter

Tonight, I spoke too soon
and truth fell out, the kind that picks
at the skin, irritates the mood.

Winter at bat: record wind chills on alert,
tornadoes and floods overstaying
their unwelcome—a coast-to-coast line
of bad weather. But weather isn’t our problem;
weather is more consistent than us.

The years have cast a pall, and fault lies
with every minute we laid to waste.

I remember the last picture I took down.
You told me to keep it, as if I needed
permission to grieve.

Your voice fades after the tone.
I can’t remember if we said goodbye.
The wind cuts off the power. This is us,
how we harmonize.

—
Cathy Porter’s poetry has appeared in Plainsongs, Homestead Review, California Quarterly, Hubbub, Cottonwood, Comstock Review, and various other journals. The Dash Between Us is her upcoming third chapbook from Finishing Line Press; A Life in the Day and Dust And Angels appeared in 2012 and 2014. She has two chapbooks published by Dancing Girl Press in Chicago: Exit Songs (2016) and 16 Days (2019), and another from Maverick Duck Press: The Skin of Uncertainty (2020). Cathy has been nominated for several Pushcart Prizes, and she serves as a special editor for the journal Fine Lines in Omaha, Nebraska.

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What We Thought Was Ours by Elizabeth Brulé Farrell

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