2019 Spring Contest Winner: 1st Place, New Poets

Falling Stars

by Meli Broderick Eaton

right there in the hidden chambers of your heart

I was born before I was born where your muscles squeezed

with apprehension, where your pulse drummed

its anticipation and you knew me before you knew me

 

when you called for my light to paint a new trail in your sky

I fell from stars, fell into the arms of a family tree

the same way you fell into yours and yours became mine

we fell from the heavens to roots threaded deep in the soil

of our grandfathers where decay becomes riches and we rise

as trembling sprouts clasped fast to woody anchors

 

now, the coins of your limbs have spidered and dropped

into rusting twilight and I see the door you will leave through, there

I will stay and the rhythms of my blood will wave goodbye

letters on our shared strands forming the words my mouth cannot

 

we will remember each other in the way

we best understood, me sleeping on pillow cheek

tiny bubbles at my suckle mouth, you staring at ghosts

in the flashes of an early morning fire, relaxed in the quiet

wilding dreams of your domesticated heart

as you untangle your branches and stir the sparks, warming the house      

 

Poet bio

Born and raised in Oregon, Meli Broderick Eaton graduated from Sweet Briar College in Virginia, where she spent four years in workshops and one-on-one independent studies with poet Mary Oliver and author John Gregory Brown. Her poem “Stream” won 3rd place in the inaugural The Source/OSU-Cascades MFA annual poetry contest, and other poems will appear this spring in Sixfold magazine and Crosswinds Poetry Journal. She lives on a suburban microfarm with her family in Bend.

  

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.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

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top