{"id":644,"date":"2020-05-16T15:29:43","date_gmt":"2020-05-16T15:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/?p=644"},"modified":"2020-05-16T15:44:58","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T15:44:58","slug":"poem-of-the-month-madrigal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/?p=644","title":{"rendered":"Poem of the Month: Madrigal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brent<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s repeat the song of
\n<\/span>summer gutters rushing rainwater
\n<\/span>asphalt still warm under bare feet
\n<\/span>its wet scent sharp in our nostrils
\n<\/span>my brother filling his pockets with worms
\n<\/span>flooded out of earthen homes<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s repeat the song of
\n<\/span>woolen Army blanket spread on crabgrass
\n<\/span>itchy at the backs of our skinny knees
\n<\/span>grape juice in tall metal tumblers
\n<\/span>the taste of iced aluminum
\n<\/span>making the back of my mouth water
\n<\/span>as if it were crying<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s repeat the song of
\n<\/span>rotten apples in the autumn yard
\n<\/span>circling, avaricious yellow jackets
\nraking was supposed to be my brother\u2019s job
\n<\/span>while we girls set table, sorted laundry
\n<\/span>rocked the eternal baby
\n<\/span>but there were too many apples for one boy alone
\n<\/span>he was so sluggish we were dispatched to help<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s repeat the song of
\n<\/span>eave icicles carefully broken off
\n<\/span>fast-melting spikes tasting mildly of dirt
\n<\/span>snow-packed ice-slick Terhune Street
\n<\/span>hard trudge up, dizzying flight down
\n<\/span>my brother\u2019s last minute veer
\n<\/span>from River Road slush and traffic
\n<\/span>into drifts built by plows while we slept<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s repeat the song of
\n<\/span>breaking glass and blood, later regrets and stitches
\n<\/span>when I locked my brother outside in his underwear
\n<\/span>he pounded the door and I couldn\u2019t let him in
\n<\/span>too afraid of his desperate outrage
\n<\/span>the angry squall in his dark eyes<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s repeat the song of
\n<\/span>plays we put on for our parents
\n<\/span>I was always director and sometimes actor, too
\n<\/span>melodramas about orphans
\n<\/span>that managed to feature a romance
\n<\/span>obligating my brother to kiss a sister on the mouth
\n<\/span>but only after both had held their breath
\n<\/span>and folded their lips in tight over teeth<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s repeat the song of
\n<\/span>board games and card games
\n<\/span>heated disputes and do-overs
\n<\/span>whether the Pick-Up stick moved
\n<\/span>which number the spinner stopped on
\n<\/span>my brother played with ardor
\n<\/span>believed he could make luck
\n<\/span>fanned out his paper money, rubbed the dice
\n<\/span>would not let me quit Monopoly, concede at checkers
\n<\/span>insisting I count on chance, not give up hope<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s repeat the song of
\n<\/span>men moving through the neighborhood
\n<\/span>scissors man hunched in his oily truck
\n<\/span>gray grindstone sparking knives, mower blades
\n<\/span>Fuller Brush man on housebound afternoons
\n<\/span>wide case of brushes, combs, creams, brooms
\n<\/span>early morning bounty of Dugan Bread man
\n<\/span>we took turns picking treats from his big basket
\n<\/span>Good Humor man on summer nights
\n<\/span>white shirt, white pants, trim white mustache
\n<\/span>I always got a toasted almond bar
\n<\/span>my brother chose differently every time<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s repeat the last song, too
\n<\/span>my brother at 50, magician, gambler
\n<\/span>cancer coarsening his slow voice
\n<\/span>scorned doctors, banked on other healers
\n<\/span>potions, purges, light machine
\n<\/span>he would not say good-bye
\n<\/span>all his families slipknots on a silken cord<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us repeat, repeat
\n<\/span>our final day together
\n<\/span>his lanky, ravished body regal still
\n<\/span>stretched out on living room floor
\n<\/span>watching the Oscars
\n<\/span>he yearned, in the end, for simple things
\n<\/span>to work up a sweat in the garden
\n<\/span>to drive through the desert, top down
\n<\/span>to play poker and win <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMadrigal\u201d was published in the anthology Beloved On The Earth<\/i>, Holy Cow Press: Duluth, MN, 2009.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                Let\u2019s repeat the song of summer gutters rushing rainwater asphalt still warm […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-noellesickelswp","post-644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-allposts","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=644"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651,"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions\/651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}