NO LIFE BUT THIS: A Novel of Emily Warren Roebling is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.


It is biographical fiction based on the life of Emily Warren Roebling considered to be the first female field engineer and highly instrumental in the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.


http://atbosh.com/authors/diane-vogel-ferri/

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Canary

This poem will be published in Plainsongs in January.

I imagine her face flushed
with windburn on the trek
from the apartment building -
its dull ochre bricks spitting
her out onto the sidewalk -
to the hole where people move
downward through timeless grime
and black puddles, like a whale
sucking fish through its baleen.
Forced into a silver bullet,
under water and cement,
the weight of the world above.
Earbuds, paperback, downcast
eyes poised for solitude,
her body toggling with the erratic tracks.

A canary in a coal mine;
Flying out of the pit, wings
of yellow hair and striped knit
scarves lifting, buoyant in the
whoosh and clash of hot and cold.
The miasma and matter
stinging her eyes and tongue.
The burden of bags pulling
at slender shoulders, her heart
heavier than what she carries.
Platform boots sprinting over
clotted paths - so far from my
peace and quiet - on into her life.
Her smile piercing each new arrival
like a baseball crashing through a window.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on a well deserved honor, Diane! This poem is awesome. (Just kidding...I read your post about irritating phrases...ha! I'm guilty of using that word too much).

But I will say this poem is beautiful! I am always fascinated when a poem sings to me, as this one does. I love these lines:

from the apartment building -
its dull ochre bricks spitting
her out onto the sidewalk -
to the hole where people move
downward through timeless grime
and black puddles, like a whale
sucking fish through its baleen.

So much music here and in all the lines. I will read this one again and again. Thank you for posting it!

Sandy said...

Gosh Diane, Your poetry is so beautiful.

Anonymous said...

NICE.

And congrats on publication.

OldLady Of The Hills said...

A BEAUTIFUL Poem, so very rich with great imagery...! And Congratulations on this being Published! Bravo, to you!

John Ettorre said...

Lovely, lovely stuff, Diane. It gave me tingles.

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

Beautiful details. I especially liked the line about her heart being heavier than what she carries.