Cathexis Northwest Press
The Little Miami River
By: Candice Kelsey
is my father
filling his shirtsÂ
and slippersÂ
with the applauseÂ
of pulses sipping Â
mudbank coffeeÂ
with the precisionÂ
of turnpike truckersÂ
dabbling ducks
sliding its rookÂ
down the tiled path
of black and whiteÂ
chess drunk hours of
painting our canoe
camouflage in
the garage but first
wiping its dust Â
with a cheeseclothÂ
tossing over the 80 oz.
popcorn bash-bags
like an angler
braving the summer
Southwestern Ohio
roller coasterÂ
of typhoon peaksÂ
and whirls onlyÂ
to placate the heartÂ
of his little girl
before silt-slow and
damned to age
or emptied tumblingÂ
into the rapids
of dementia’s big
river mouth
while I am distracted
by the shimmer
and feather of hooks
Candice Kelsey's work has appeared in such journals as Poet Lore, The Cortland Review, and North Dakota Quarterly. She published a successful trade paperback with Da Capo Press, made it to the quarter finals of the 2017 Able Muse Prize for Poetry, was a finalist for Poetry Quarterly's 2018 Rebecca Lard Award, and recently was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. An educator of 20 years' standing with her M.A. in literature from LMU, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.
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The Little Miami River first appeared in The Broadkill Review https://www.broadkillreview.com/single-post/2019/06/03/Two-poems-1