For the Reader

Patrick Modiano, the recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature 2014 said that once the book/poem leaves the writer it no longer needs him/her.
From now on it will discover itself through its readers. I like this idea.
Here is one for you.

Untitled

You turn language upside down
as only a poet or one born to a different language can.

A bat's wing flutters in the dark.
Something trickles that is not fear.

In the water I cock my ear to the surface
that will break with my next stroke

Something gives way that is neither of us...

Copyright with Cathy Leonard 2016

And less opaque...

The Nest

I live in a nest of woolly jumpers
Yours. So that when I roll about
from time to time
there is no fear of me cracking.
The problem is -I need to hatch.
I need something hard to brace myself against.
I might crack anyway
And mess up your woolly jumper.
Or it might be better if you just let me fall.


Copyright with Cathy Leonard 2016