or by mike chrisman

i s s u e: 1

// p o e t r y

Or
by Mike Chrisman

for Siena, age 3 months

I carried my baby down the dark
road between the moon and pond.
She cried, as if she wanted some
better balance of light and water.
I tried to sing her what quiet I could
take from those places. But she cried,
as if she needed calm
from far below me, below
the search for balance,
                                        deep into rock,
down where centers meet, where I
could no more extract it
than she would know if she saw it …
as if she knew I could grasp
at the loss as ballast against
falling or floating any sudden
way …
           or
                         that I could hold her close
against both our uncertain places
  and sway and sway and sway and sway.

about the author // Mike Chrisman

Mike Chrisman (he/him) lived for decades in rural Western Massachusetts, working thirty-five years in the mental health field. MFA in Creative Writing from UMass, Amherst. Three daughters, five grandkids. He published/edited “The Valley Comic News”. Was stringer/humorist for “The Shelburne Falls & West County News”. He’s been published in small mags, most of which are extinct by now. “Little Stories: New Poems by Michael Chrisman” has an ISBN (dyslexiabookspublishing.com). His “The Bible: Warts and All” appears on Amazon Kindle. Audio of his CD “Walking the Windy High Wire” can be heard on YouTube. He’s retired now, in Antigua, Guatemala.

Instagram: @mike.chrisman