Madeline Strasen is a poet and non-fiction writer based in Stowe, VT. With a Bachelor of Arts in English, she hopes to use her writing for community and advocacy. She has previously been published in In Parentheses.
Southern Sky
Oh sweet southern sky,
Take me to warmer
Days of ignorance
And blissful present
Peace, hopeful of fresh
Fields to sow rows of
Sustenance, beyond
The realm of what i’ve
Ever wished to come.
I forgot the scent
Of rain on pavement
And clumped spanish moss
Landing at my feet,
Tangled beyond a
Possible repair,
And sounds of voices
Faded and dated.
Although I’ll long for
Your sticky air and
Birds chirping early,
The softness of your
Formations reminds
Me of unstable
Questioning and doubt
To which I’ve grown past.
Thank you for solace
That the gravel road
Traveled opposite
Of your horizon
Is the path for me,
Even if unpaced.
Oh sweet southern sky
You’re no longer home,
The reminder of
Your sweetness captured
Briefly over my
Run down tastebuds can’t
Linger more than moments,
But since you were home
Once, I will always
Remain ungrounded.
James
Has your heart ever poured
Like a bottle of wine?
You smile, I shrivel
Into what I believe
Of me is true: craving
Only covers the base
Layer of this longing,
And I wonder not who
I wish to be but
How our presence fulfills
The entity of us.
The light to my descent
I knew, on a humble
Night when fall overcame
Summer, would harmonize
Melodies after all the points
Of ‘almost’ – a clear stare
Into the joyous fall
Of fervor. A graceful
Graze of your fingertips
Across the sharpest piece
Of me, with tender poise,
Leaves me beautifully raw
In visibility
Within this sacred space.
Leaves fall on roofs while
Stars muse through the skylight.
I trace each with my eyes
Like the freckles on your
Shoulders and come undone..
Smooth Waves
Ruddy from your cheeks
To your jawline I
Capture your subtle
Heat through the ocean
Ether. The ardor
Radiates to trip
My tongue, my parlance
Altering into
Newfound voicelessness
Adjuring for clear
Enough expression
Of this magnified devotion
Beyond simple reverence.
Show me where it hurts.
We can pour into
Sidewalk cracks, grasping
One to the other,
Tumbling into truths
Jointly through moments
Immeasurable
Of their profoundness.
Our credence in us
Rouses assurance
Of sincerity.
Adherence to you
Unbars expanses
Of fidelity
Even through hollows
Inevitable
In mortality.
Prithee grant me to
Bolster your burdens
With togetherness,
Robust in bracing
Warmth – we create
More than can be perceived.
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Founded in late 2011, In Parentheses prides itself upon analysis of the current condition of intelligence in the minds of these young people, and building a hypothesis for one looming question: what comes after Post-Modernism?
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By In Parentheses in IP Volume 7
32 pages, published 1/15/2022
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By In Parentheses in Volume 6
80 pages, published 10/15/2020
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