• Poetry
  • Fiction
  • Flash Fiction
  • Nonfiction
  • Book Reviews
  • Translations
  • About
  • Awards
  • Submissions
  • Buy LAR
  • Poetry
  • Fiction
  • Flash Fiction
  • Nonfiction
  • Book Reviews
  • Translations
  • About
  • Awards
  • Submissions
  • Buy LAR

Two Poems by Michael Montlack


Ruth

1935—Amelia Earhart was the first

to fly solo from Honolulu to California.

The Dust Bowl rolled out record heat.  

Where at 16 could you have flown or blown?

 

Surely not far from the family that took in

your baby girl. Like your biblical namesake:

Where you go I will go . . . Even buried

in the hometown that called you hussy.

 

No aprons or arthritis in my imaginary

portrait of you. Just a faceless silhouette.

A marble cameo laced tight as a noose

around the neck of a voiceless woman.

 

Ruth—Grandmother—you are a stitch

in the lining of an inside pocket, a vintage

jacket I have never worn. Hanging

in a dark locked wardrobe that smells

 

just like me.

 

Birth Was a Wordless Meadow

Yet we understood the directions, how to

traverse it, at night, barefoot and alone,

never tripping on knotty roots or tangled grass,

even with our eyes still blind, interpreting

the gush that urged us, a testament

to the self, porous but prepared

to arrive at some implied landing

where we might rest, if only for a little while.

 

 


Michael Montlack is author of the poetry book Cool Limbo (NYQ Books) and editor of the essay anthology My Diva (University of Wisconsin Press). Recently his work has appeared in North American Review, Hotel Amerika, Poet Lore, Painted Bride Quarterly and Advocate.com. He lives in NYC.



2 responses to “Two Poems by Michael Montlack”

  1. Cecilia Cassidy says:
    April 18, 2018 at 3:02 am

    Michael:

    These are just beautiful.
    Thanks.

    Cecilia

    Reply
  2. Vibha Karen Thompson says:
    May 30, 2020 at 8:31 am

    Love the fluid fresh unexpected turn of the water falling over rocks, my dad trout-fishing and releasing me to the forest of the grandmothers

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Heaven by Mir Arif
  • Give by Ma Yan Translated by Winnie Zeng
  • Lubbock Spring by Emma Aylor
  • Intermezzos Along the Road Home by Kathryn Petruccelli
  • A Review and an Interview of Lawrence Raab’s April at the Ruins

Recent Comments

  • Judith Fodor on Three Poems by David Keplinger
  • Marietta Brill on 2 Poems by Leah Umansky

Categories

  • Award Winners
  • Blooming Moons
  • Book Reviews
  • Fiction
  • Flash Fiction
  • Interviews
  • LAR Online
  • Nonfiction
  • Poetry
  • Translations
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Recent Posts

  • Heaven by Mir Arif
  • Give by Ma Yan Translated by Winnie Zeng
  • Lubbock Spring by Emma Aylor
  • Intermezzos Along the Road Home by Kathryn Petruccelli
  • A Review and an Interview of Lawrence Raab’s April at the Ruins
© 2014 Los Angeles Review. All Rights Reserved. Design and Developed by NJSCreative Inspired by Dessign.net