Janice Hornburg
~
Spring Cleaning
To believe your eyes that the blade of sunlight falling
across your shuttered lids, is finally a sign of earth’s tilt
towards spring. To believe your nose that the whiff
of sour sheets where you’ve slept like a she-bear
is a cue to pry open the window, fill your lungs
with wholesome air, blow out winter’s stale breath.
To believe your ears that the mockingbird chorus pulsing
from golden forsythia is more than another Siren song,
and as you kick to the kitchen through years of hoarded
clutter, to believe your soles that the objects you cling to
are more stumbling blocks than refuge. To taste
the sweet bitterness of morning coffee, and muse
how it serves as an example for life—a lesson in
how to savor the full palate of experiences—learning
to love yourself for who you are, and to love others
not in measured spoonfuls, but in cups overflowing.
For the first time in years, you entertain the possibility
of picking up the broom and throwing open the door.
~
Eve’s Fall
(After Maurice Manning)
Ma’am I believe this row
runs to the end of days
parched pea vines droop in dust
my back throbs in rhythm
to the hoe’s chop chop chop
O Daughter of Earth
I conjure up old days
when your painted likeness
danced on fire-lit cave walls
and your spirit children
lay down naked beneath
the spring moon to love life
back into fallow ground
then ol’ Boss came with his
field-hand and the world shifted
Ma’am at first glance that man
seemed a sight to behold
ruddy as the clay-dirt
and so handsome O Ma’am
he gave me the shivers
I blame that hard cider
he just wanted a taste
ol’ Boss caught us sleeping
it off in the orchard
and claimed he’d used Man’s rib
to form a helpmate—me
you know that’s a lie Ma’am
now I work this mortal
pea-patch belly swelled
like an over-ripe pod
ol’ Boss just rode his mule
past my row laughed and said
don’t worry you can raise
Cain when you get Abel
~
Janice Hornburg is a native Texan who transplanted to East Tennessee in 1993. She is an award-winning poet and a member of the Poetry Society of Tennessee, NE Chapter, the North Carolina Writers’ Network, and the Lost State Writers’ Guild. Janice’s chapbook, Perspectives, was released by Finishing Line Press in May, 2013. Her work is published in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Gretchen Moran Laskas Volume V and The Southern Poetry Anthology, Vol. VI: Tennessee. Other poems have appeared in Appalachian Heritage, Chapter 16, Town Creek Poetry, and Tennessee Voices.
~