In deep sleep
a sudden rush
of wings
a swirl
of golden light
confused
with black
Heart hurts
Deep roots
ripped out
in one fell swoop
O Mother
I was in
you
were in
me
until that
rip
GO
in sleep
in dark
confusion
Go in one
fell
swoop
free
of body’s husk
brain’s dread
tangle
knotted you
severed
me
So much got lost
your laughter on the phone
your sturdy feet
on the path around the lake
the mischief in your eyes
harks back
to the last millennium
the time
between the wars
brief peace
you were a laughing girl
before
catastrophe
"WHERE IS SHE?"
I ask the persimmon tree
You've harvested all
my fruit What else
do you want?
I ask the dead leaves
on the garden path
"Where did she go?"
Listen
we crackle
under your feet dry
as bones long past
fall colors empty vessels
for the wind
I ask the mountain
"Where is my mother?"
Here, says the rock
Here, says the scrub oak
Here, says the cloud
shrouding the peak
with one fell swoop
crow caws
Wake up you fool
She's right behind you
pulling your wings down
lifting your head to the sky
Your mother is
your spine
BLOODY SHOW
In the dream I see
bright-red blood
a bloody show?
a miscarriage?
like the two you had
before me?
You are a lake
I'm trying to
walk around
The path goes boggy
the reeds threaten
to pull me in
You are breaking up
mother falling
into pieces of a child's
fell swoop
a child's lost
loop or perhaps
you are the sap of
Our mother tree
Our body of blood
Our body of water
Our body of laughter
Our body of roots
I WISH
I could tell you
about
the Women's March
Mother
Would you
get that
half-offended
half-delighted
look
when in fell swoops
in loops of language
I explain
pussy hats?
Naomi Ruth Lowinsky is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Berkeley, CA, and the Poetry and Fiction Editor of Psychological Perspectives, which is published by the Los Angeles Jung Institute.
Naomi’s “Madelyn Dunham, Passing On” won first prize in the Obama Millennium Contest. She has also won the Blue Light Poetry Chapbook Contest. Her work has been widely published and has appeared, or is forthcoming in Argestes, Backwards City Review, Barely South Review, Blue Lake Review, Bogg, Cadillac Cicatrix, California Quarterly, The Cape Rock, Caveat Lector, The Chaffin Journal, Circle Show, Compass Rose, Comstock Review, Crack the Spine, Darkling, decomP, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Dogwood Review, Drunk Monkeys, Earth’s Daughters, Eclipse, ellipsis…literature and art, Emprise Review, Euphony, Evening Street Review, Fourth River, Freshwater, Front Porch, G.W. Review, Ginosko, Ibbetson Street Press, Into the Teeth of the Wind, Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, Juked, Left Curve, Lindenwood Review, Mantis, Meridian Anthology Of Contemporary Poetry, Minetta Review, Monkeybicycle, Nassau Review, Origins Journal, The Penmen Review, The Pinch, Poem, Prick of the Spindle, poetrymagazine.com, Quiddity, Qwerty, Rattle, Reed Magazine, Runes, Sanskrit, Schuylkill Valley Journal Of The Arts, Serving House Journal, Shark Reef, Ship of Fools, Sierra Nevada Review, SLAB, Sliver of Stone, Soundings East, South Dakota Review, Southern Humanities Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Stand, Stickman Review, The Texas Review, Tiger’s Eye Journal, Tightrope, Verdad, Visions International, Weber Studies, Westview, Whistling Shade, West Trestle Review, Wild Violet, Willow Review, and in the anthologies Child of My Child, When the Muse Calls, and The Book of Now. Her fourth poetry collection is called The Faust Woman Poems.