I Loved You Early and Green
I loved you dusky. I loved you low.
Lake, moss, bark, lichen—I touched you
like my own skin. How could I be alone?
Tell me, sweetheart, was I ever in season,
thick with blossom and sap?
In the green wedge of summer
you did your job, setting fires
under my ribs.
(I don’t miss you.) I miss air. (I don’t miss you.)
Lucille the Hen
Suzanne Simmons’ poems, essays and photographs have been published in the NYTimes, Fifth Wednesday, Rattle, Smartish Pace, The Baltimore Review and numerous other journals. Her chapbook In September They Draw Down the Lake was released by Alexandria Quarterly Press in 2020. She lives in Southern Maine with too many chickens and one very fine cat. Visit her at www.suzannesimmons.net.
