Sample Poems by Diane Kerr

From "Butterfly"

She propped us up side by side,
tied us with knotted dishtowels
next to her on the front seat
of the green 37 Plymouth,
headed west, then northwest on 16, ticking
off the farm towns: Portage, Mauston,
Tomah, Black River Falls; in between-
empty March fields too frozen to work.
Augusta, Chippewa Falls, Cornell,
Sheldon, stopping once for gas, feeding,
changing. When one or the other cried,
she sang, or talked, or cried herself.
When we fell asleep, she reached
over, leaned us against each other.

Eight hours to Ladysmith, 10 miles more
on dirt to their godforsaken farm,
still without electricity, water
still hand-pumped, hauled
by bucket into the house,
stinking privy out behind the tool shed.

Husband staying home, busy
trying to get the business going.
Mother-in-law back there too
in tightlipped disapproval;
she went anyway, determined
to show her folks her twin babies, have
them see what she had made of herself.

*

Shared initials but not a rhyme,
no secret language, nearly nothing

from him for years. After awhile
I quit calling, quit sending cards.

Once, that pull of the moon,
he left a message: Happy Birthday.

That was it, not his name,
not how are you, I love you too.

It's my brother, I said.
How did I know? Ask the babies,

those preemie twins who survive better
in the same cramped incubator. Ask

what settles them, what calms
the small heaving lungs.