Archive
Of Ten or More in a Room
by Scott Owens
One will be thinking of dinner.
One will be humming a Pretender’s tune
in her head. Two or more will look
out the window and think of something
they’ve forgotten to do. If you’re lucky
two will be hanging on every word.
The rest will be so sad
they can hardly keep their faces on.
But one, one will be writing a poem
so beautiful you can see trees
in her eyes. Flowers will bloom in the corners
of her mouth, and in the crease of her forehead
the knowledge in that moment that says
Right now, I care for you all.
Author of six collections of poetry and over 600 poems published in journals and anthologies, Scott Owens (webpage, blog) is editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review, Vice President of the Poetry Council of North Carolina, and recipient of awards from the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the Academy of American Poets, the NC Writers’ Network, the NC Poetry Society, and the Poetry Society of SC. He holds an MFA from UNC Greensboro and currently teaches at Catawba Valley Community College.
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