Issue Twenty-Two - Summer 2013

A Little Green

By Kathleen Holliday

For Daphne

I hoped to burst into leaf
(Having read it worked for her)
My toes sunk deep into brown carpet,
Arms branching toward the ceiling –
A little green,
A thicker skin.

Did she turn in time
To feel his arms surround a slender bole –
Embracing her still-racing heart?

I believe she was the only one
who got away.

Copyright Holliday 2013

Kathleen Holliday lives on an island in the Salish Sea. Her poems have appeared in The Bellingham Review, The Blue Nib Literary Magazine, Cathexis Northwest Press, New Ohio Review, Nimrod International Journal, Poet Lore, Poetry Super Highway, SHARK REEF, The Write Launch and other journals. She is a graduate of Augsburg University, Minneapolis, MN. Her first chapbook, Putting My Ash on the Line, was published by Finishing Line Press, 2020; her second, Boatman, Pass By, by Finishing Line Press, 2023.

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