Kathleen Weihe: Two Poems

On My Way to a Poem | As Long as a Crow's Life

On My Way to a Poem

It is exactly like finding a dollar
while looking through leaves at the curb
for the orange and black candies
the Vulcans threw during
the Halloween parade. It is
exactly like finding an earring
when you're on your hands and
knees ferreting out dust from
under the bed. How tremendously
simple it can be to find something
on your way to something else.
Unless you're looking for it,
& you fail to see how exactly
like not finding it it is.

As Long as a Crow's Life

I know we live slightly longer than a horse
but not nearly as long as a crow.
          —Nazim Hikmet

1.
If we are crows, or horses, possessions
fall away, and so do intricate things
and there we are, flying into each other,
making love in that way for decades.

2.
Your breath is apricot scented,
as if I could enter the orchard
through your lips and push open
the seal of water against wood.

3.
When I forget crows, or horses,
I feel immortal.
Men and women take over,
while flight and standing still in the dirt
are forgotten.

4.
We travel like crows,
lighting on desire,
a blue or fog-covered point
at the tip of a tree:
not so simple to love for this long.

Poet's Biography:

Kathleen Weihe (formerly published as Kathleen Houser) received her MFA from Hamline University in 2002. She was granted a Minnesota State Arts Board artist's assistance fellowship and will teach poetry workshops at the Loft this summer. Her work has been published in Water-Stone, Spoon River Poetry Review, North Stone Review, and other journals. Her poem, "Farmhouse," was an honorable mention for the Jane Kenyon Poetry Prize. She is a former recipient of a Loft-McKnight award and participated in the Loft's Mentor Series. She lives in Little Canada with her family and spends a small but important amount of time each day discussing politics at the dog park.