November

As autumn grows darker and November brings its chill, Lifetime Learning is pleased to share the creative talents of UVA faculty poets. Lisa Russ Spaar is Professor and Director of Creative Writing and Director, Area Program in Poetry Writing in the Department of English in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia.

November

Frost-whiskered lawn,
pink creep of dawn
pinching tree-bones: gift
I open alone

on the landing, a lifted-
harness cling, humic fissure,
dread, that this scribble of
espresso

will not allay.
In my last dream, I saved my
children.  Woke.  Wept hard,
arms strapped, crossing guard,

to chest.  I was mother, then, not citizen.
Why would I fall to sleep again?

(c) Lisa Russ Spaar