Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Four November-December 2024
Three Poems by Serena Agusto-Cox.
Before enclosing memory in resilient love
– For Reuben Jackson and his beloved Vermont
Hair twists in shift of wind,
not as violent as tornado.
Wild rage, a tantrum of debris —
grief flung widely.
Breeze is your hand
swiping tears from cheeks.
Streams are harder to divert
when overtopping banks, tumbling cars
into trees, and sweeping homes from foundations.
Emptied communities.
Gale calms, light cracks clouds,
people filter through muddy streets,
climb and gawk at splinters
puzzle out what’s left behind.
Telescoping
– For Reuben Jackson
I watch sky for signs of you
There! Rippled laugh lines
hidden behind clouds.
Curved mirrors and lenses
collect light, shining eyes
joyful and laughing.
Collision and tumbling away
captured in tear drops.
Magnify blue into black beyond clouds
where fragments of your true self wait
nearer I become, dear friend.
Road Work
Along the double yellow line
crawling curled stripes cross
a border. Slurry seal, backer rod
for 3/4-inch cracks. Our disconnect
outside the lines of our written charter.
Destinations infinite along America’s road:
bonds restored with diligence.
© Serena Agusto-Cox
Serena Agusto-Cox’s poetry has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, she is an editor with The Mid-Atlantic Review, she coordinates poetry programming for the Gaithersburg Book Festival, and was a featured reader at the Gaithersburg’s DiVerse Poetry reading series and D.C.’s Literary Hill BookFest. Poems appear in multiple magazines and anthologies. She also founded the book review blog, Savvy Verse & Wit, and Poetic Book Tours to help poets market their books.