We Arrive

the line for the carwash snakes through the parking lot
windows down, blasting music at each other
to say we’re still alive over here, how about you

a cacophony of exultation, we touch each other carefully
like glass ornaments full of color and light
we now know how fragile we are, don’t we

or did we just squander our come to Jesus/Allah/Buddha moment
throwing insults at each other and fighting over
masks in classrooms, mandated vaccines

do our arms ache for each other the way they ought to
after all this time alone between spring
and summer and winter and spring again

hyacinth are coming up with their gift of perfume
our weather is tentative, don’t you think
given the distance we’ve lived inside for so long

Nothing would Grow

what dream brought them here
to the northern edge of Orkney

and why did they stay when they knew
nothing would grow, they would live

off thistles and the sea
they could read the stars

knew the smell of rising storms
could hear the aurora borealis

left nothing but some stone walls
and the sea still pounding the shore

for its daily tithe of salt and foam
Neolithic settlement deliberately destroyed

at the end of its use, could they see something coming
how did they know it was time to leave for good

Holding up the House

the mermaids in the basement
came out to look at me — Emily Dickinson

not much to look at now
a crone with a crown of white hair

no gracefulness to speak of
can’t swim, just frog-kick

round body like a manatee
which were often mistaken for mermaids

but I did have music in my fingers once
and a siren’s power in years past

they came out to look at me
they had always been there

the mermaids in the basement
the magic that held up the house

with their slippery bodies
movement slick as seals

a school of women
who witness everything

Maureen Clark’s collection This Insatiable August was released in 2024 by Signature Books. She has received two nominations this year for a Pushcart Prize. Her memoir Falling into Bountiful: Confessions of a Once Upon a Time Mormon was an Honorable Mention in the 2024 Utah Original Writing Competition.