Displaced by Sheila E. Murphy

I have transitioned from oak and ice

To saguaros with kiss flowers at their tops

It keeps being June again I walk in flare temperatures 

recalling lush green boughs above midwestern driveway

Mock orange bushes cushioning familiar yard 

The identical moon shines down upon me here 

Christening me for listening to heat a form of privacy like snow 

Rain dreams down within our hidden psyches

_______

Poems have appeared in Poetry, Hanging Loose, Fortnightly Review, and numerous others. Most recent books are Permission to Relax (BlazeVOX Books, 2023) Murphy received the Gertrude Stein Award for Letters to Unfinished J. (Green Integer Press, 2003). Reporting Live from You Know Where (2018) won the Hay(na)Ku Poetry Book Prize Competition.