NC Poets on 9/11: Two Poems by Dede Wilson
Dede Wilson has lived in Charlotte since 1967. She has four books of poetry: Glass, finalist for the Persephone Press Award; Sea of Small Fears, winner of the Main Street Rag Chapbook Competition; One Nightstand and Eliza: The New Orleans Years, which will be performed as a one-woman show at Carolina Actors Studio Theatre (CAST) in Charlotte in 2012. Her poems have been published in Carolina Quarterly, Poet Lore, Flyway, Spoon River Poetry Review, Tar River and in Nimrod as finalists for the Pablo Neruda Prize.
VOICE OF THE WRECKAGE
Circle
my smoldering bones,
wrist-hinge and shin. Shine
your false light, searching
for what I am not.
And when you stagger
upon my lone gold ring, you will
be wedded to absence. I am
a tissue-thin stain
to add to the earth’s striata:
bloodfall, breastmilk, body
of little but water, rich vein
of memory you are measuring.
So I will tell you:
one sharp breath was all we took away.
Now my sigh, gauze lung in the leaves,
feeds your zeal for flame. And as
the last smoke lifts, filled
with flesh, I leave you
hungered.
ZERO AT THE BONE
Look at that girl!
A tangle of startled hair,
a red so red she is the verb
illuminate.
Where chalk has washed from the walk,
She flares toward each faint square, falls
Slow somersault circles, sprawls,
Cracks the pavement.
“Voice of the Wreckage” was published in Asheville Poetry Review and in the Asheville Poetry Review 10th Anniversary Anthology. “Zero at the Bone” is unpublished.
3 Responses to “NC Poets on 9/11: Two Poems by Dede Wilson”
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Lovely! And I never remember seeing the poem “Zero at the Bone.”
Dede, I met you in Jackson at your play. These poems are so heartfelt – I am so touched by your words. These past few days focused on the remembrances have all brought 911 into bright light once again. A tragic time in all of our lives.
Thanks for sharing your poetry.
Beautiful heart filled poems, Dede.