25 September 2008 | Vol. 8, No. 3
Momentum
At the turnpike a doe lies stiff
along a median of dry grass. Over her black
nose and eyes, an occasional fly
stirs. Summer is here. Even so,
a soft ruffle of white on her chest reminds me
of snow; between tremors
of exhaust, her pale tuft
fades into a glimmer. Once, someone testing
the quickness of my reflexes
asked me: what is 7 x 4?
It was a joke. And I responded
that seven x four is the distance
between the Coral Sea
and a field of lavender. In hindsight,
this was the wrong response
to a question of brevity. As I drive
deeper into dusk it occurs to me
that time is not fashioned
by distance but by momentum. Shorn spaces
arise between grief's mileposts
like a constant hammering of new holes
into a worn leather belt. A flit
of headlights and a chrome fender
rush into a deer's flank.
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About the author:
Maureen Alsop's poems have appeared or are pending in various publications, including Barrow Street, Cortland Review, MARGIE, Typo, North Dakota Quarterly, Columbia: a Journal of Literature and Art, and Texas Review, among others. She is the recent recipient of Harpur Palate's 2007 Milton Kessler Memorial Award in Poetry, Bitter Oleander's 2007 Frances Locke Memorial Award in Poetry, and Eleventh Muse's 2006 Poetry Prize. She is the author of two chapbooks, Origin of Stone and Nightingale Habit (2006, Finishing Line Press). Her first full collection of poetry, Apparition Wren, was recently released by Main Street Rag Press; her second collection of poetry, The Diction of Moths, is pending publication in 2009 with Ghost Road Press. She is an associate editor for the online journal Poemeleon.
For further reading:
Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 8, No. 3, where "Momentum" ran on September 25, 2008. List other work with these same labels: poetry.
