by Lois Marie Harrod
CATKIN
LITTLE KITTEN
carrier of scratch and sneeze
flower without petal
larval blossom, birch tassel
chestnut fringe
hermaphrodite in the poplar
hazel tease
oak bobble to the corn–
you let the wind do your work
and fall to grass
and grumble, gather
at curb edge
common alder
goat willow
like me, done
what you’ve done
flimflam, harum-scarum
in a heap.
LOIS MARIE HARROD’s Spat was published in May 2021, and her 17th collection Woman was published by Blue Lyra in February 2020. Nightmares of the Minor Poet appeared in June 2016 from Five Oaks; her chapbook And She Took the Heart appeared in January 2016; Fragments from the Biography of Nemesis (Cherry Grove Press) and the chapbook How Marlene Mae Longs for Truth (Dancing Girl Press) appeared in 2013. Life-long educator and writer, Harrod is published in literary journals and online magazines from American Poetry Review to Zone 3.
Links to her work can be found at: loismarieharrod.org.