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Note to Courtney from Genoa, Nevada
Melanie Perish

Sunday morning. The sky — that polished cold —
silver-rose just above the foothills.
Jon’s in town and we drive, talk of you —
the possibility of dinner the next time he returns.
Tomorrow, we’ll take Thai food to our Canadian friends.
You swam your way into your twenties,
and we’ve watched their three boys
tackle, skate, and bat their ways out of adolescence.

We didn’t stop at the bronze statue
of Lilian Virgin Finnegan, the Candy Dance lady
who yoked together a town dance
and candy sale to raise money for streetlights. Power
was always a concern of women in the West.

In the car, we read your poems out loud,
love the irreverent voice, the break-mend,
break-mend. Then the break again —
with a side of bird bones — your signature phrase.
You have more gifts than just craft and quirk.
Last night, I watched Law & Order where a 30-something
tripped the bad guy, with a broomstick, remembered
several people suggested you get a cane with a sword
in it, or carry a gun. And when I told Jon

he smiled for a long time, said, They don’t understand
she was a spider in another life, a red-tail
in the one before that. And I agreed. You live your days
with perseverance and poison, flight, and a hawk’s
hooked beak. If there’s no snow or a wild wind,
we should go for a drive — maybe next week.

—
Melanie Perish’s work has appeared in Sequestrum, Sinister Wisdom, West Trestle Review, Persimmon Tree, and The Meadow. Her books include Passions & Gratitudes (Black Rock Press, 2011) and The Fishing Poems (chapbook, Meridian Press, 2017). Foreign Voices, Native Tongues (Blurb/Single Wing Press, 2021) is her most recent collection. Perish has been the featured reader in online and in-person poetry readings, including several celebrating National Poetry Month. She is a member of Poets & Writers, Inc., and has done Poets-in-the-Schools. She believes reading makes you beautiful.

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