During the month of April 2020, Arlington Poet Laureate Emerita Katherine E. Young is posting poems from the forthcoming anthology Written in Arlington, which showcases the poets and poems of Arlington, Virginia.
Overnight Maples Turn into Pumpkins
by Katherine Gekker
and the dog disappears for hours in his leaf-filled yard
herds squirrels corner to corner
No acorn will be harvested on his watch
Too tired for his nighttime walk
he puts himself to bed at eight
Tonight as the sun sets
wasps race to their nest
angry that their time is almost over
Seven deer tiptoe single file
from their feeding ground to their sleeping ground
A full moon
shines silver on the batwing begonias
And then it happens
You are there
The dog, overjoyed
brings his ball, his stick
anything to keep you
It’s like that other sunset
when the tops of the oaks glowed yellow
For a long time
you had been too ill to look out the window
Suddenly you saw them
and asked
How can I bear such beauty?
Katherine Gekker is the author of In Search of Warm Breathing Things. Her poems have appeared in Little Patuxent Review, Delmarva Review, Broadkill Review, Apple Valley Review, and elsewhere. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Gekker was born in Washington, DC. She founded a commercial printing company in 1974 and sold it thirty-one years later. When not writing, she practices piano. “Overnight Maples Turn into Pumpkins” first appeared as part of the song cycle Chasing the Moon Down from Musik Fabrik Musik Publishing.
Written in Arlington / Spoken in Arlington is a print and digital collection of the poets and poems of Arlington, VA, edited by Katherine E. Young and published by Paycock Press (forthcoming, fall 2020). It is supported in part by Arlington County through the Arlington Cultural Affairs division of Arlington Economic Development and the Arlington Commission for the Arts. For more information, visit Arlington Arts.
Image: After the Rain mixed media/collage on canvas by Anya Getter (fragment)
