The soldiers are cradling their weapons, / their rainbows, their peacock tails

Poetry by Caroline Goodwin

Sky

a pale wash, a pinch of comfort
            in the sound of the surf
 
reaching our bed
 
in the line of clay owls
            on the windowsill
 
ivory swan
 
metal bird and
            wing the shape of a leaf
 
eye shoulder and claw
 
there is etched glass
            and a wire of tiny lights
 
and the chair that held you

Lightly, Lightly

The soldiers are cradling their weapons,
            their rainbows, their peacock tails
 
and eyespots/plumes. My love underfoot, my
love stomped down in puddles
 
but reflected in the sky.

Caroline Goodwin moved from Sitka, Alaska to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999 to attend Stanford as a Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry. Her books are Trapline (JackLeg Press, 2013), Peregrine (Finishing Line Press, 2015), The Paper Tree (Big Yes Press, 2017) and Custody of the Eyes (dancing girl press, 2017). From 2014 – 16 she served as the first Poet Laureate of San Mateo County, CA. You can find her on Twitter @c_goodw, on Instagram @c_goodw, on Facebook, and at her website, www.carolinegoodw.com.