Thursday 19 July 2012

Tobi Cogswell

Kick the Can

A lovely tumble of spires
and spikes marked their
territory in the backyard
grounds of the old house
in Greenville, just down
the street.

They played every day,
only stopping when the first
neighbor kids mom called
“come home for supper”.
They knew that call meant
everyone, that play was done.

It was time for manners,
placemats, eat the four outside
leaves of the Brussels sprouts
and napkin the pork chop edge
to the dog.

She tries to remember
how one boy was so brave,
she always wore a pink
dress to play in, he’d take out
her collected stickers gently,
one by one, her ankles blinking
with tiny red dots…

She still hates Brussels sprouts
and still loves pink.
She recalls those days
at the oddest times,
a walk in the canyon
when thorns ignite her ankles
as if they were a gift,
the innocence of summers
she can barely recall.

Tobi Cogswell is a two-time Pushcart nominee.  Credits include or are forthcoming in Illya’s Honey, REAL, Iodine Poetry Journal, Slipstream, StepAway (UK), Turbulence (UK), Front Porch Review, Rufous Salon (Sweden), Alligator Stew (UK), Ballard Street Poetry Journal, Bacopa, Compass Rose, The Broken Plate, Border Crossing, I-70 Review, Incandescent (UK), Agenda Poetry (UK) and Pale House - Letters to Los Angeles. Her latest chapbook is “Surface Effects in Winter Wind”, (Kindred Spirit Press).  She is the co-editor of San Pedro River Review (www.sprreview.com).