Bedroom

I remember you wakened to a scratch on the roof
under your window:

a raccoon dismayed at its own arrival
couldn’t figure

how to disentangle itself
from the wide, deep intrusion of space

where no limb or branch, not even a lisp of leaves
overhangs to grab hold of, no fire escape

antenna, gutter, downspout, nothing

but to stand alone, pinpoint eyes seeing
all too well the confines of its island cell

You, always accomplice to escape,
opened the window

encouraged confusion to enter
to cross the darkened floor to the unlit hall

the hall to the stair to the door to the street
and leave,

a gray-black thread
marking

your own map of passage

Author of the article

Denise Bergman’s most recent poetry book is The Telling (Cervena Barva Press, 2014). A Woman in Pieces Crossed a Sea won the Patricia Clark Smith Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from West End Press in Spring 2014. Seeing Annie Sullivan, poems based on the early life of Helen Keller’s teacher (Cedar Hill Books), was translated into Braille and made into a Talking Book. Denise conceived and edited City River of Voices (West End Press), an anthology of urban poetry. Her poems have been widely published. An excerpt of her poem Red, is permanently installed as public art. Her poem A Building Away was a Split This Rock poem of the week. She was selected as a finalist for the 2014 Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Poetry Fellowship. www.denisebergman.com.