Karen Paul Holmes will teach a class at Writers Circle on July 20. I am sharing one of her poems with my readers because I know you will love her work and will enjoy her class. Karen has studied with some of the great poets of today, She is sharing what she learned about editing your own work from poet, Thomas Lux. I am looking forward to having Karen here and I know all of you will like this fun class.
White After Memorial Day
by Karen Paul Holmes
It’s only April 10th, yet I’ve shimmied
into optic white jeans, rejoicing
that they fit from last summer; white
doesn’t forgive. Boiling
for broth on the stove: the chaff
of last night’s chicken
thyme rubbed into its olive-oiled skin
for my dinner party
where a true Belle told me, In the South, you go
by temperature not date.
In michigan this wouldn’t happen
and even here, I don’t wear white shoes
until June first. I just won’t.
An Augusta gentleman, 82, with young man’s glasses
asks me to coffee. He has heard of my divorce.
I refuse, politely. His wife died three years ago.
Twin Cadillacs, circa 1980, sit in his carport
side by side, limo-long and white.
This poem was published in Southern Women's Review. Click on link to read great stories, essays and poetry.
