Written in September 2005

Image: “The Pink Rose,” by Alice B. Clagett, ca. 2015, CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: “The Pink Rose,” by Alice B. Clagett, ca. 2015, CC BY-SA 4.0

TO CATCH A SALAMANDER
A Poem by Alice B. Clagett
September 2005

This is a poem about a time
when I was taking care of my mom
during the last seven years of her life.
As an empath, I could feel her sense of
disorientation in the evenings.
This is about the first time that happened.

Like a sparrow
. . .  with a broken wing
My mother fell
. . .  into a pool

. . .  . . .  . . .  . . .  of madness

And I

. . .  . . .  fell in too.

It was our first time there,
. . .  in those sad haunts.

She didn’t like it much,
. . .  and so we surfaced

. . .  . . .  soon

to grasp the day

like a child
. . .  turning over
. . .  . . .  a rotten log

to catch a salamander

……….

Alice B. Clagett

Except where otherwise noted, “The Chalice and the Crucible” by Alice B. Clagett … https://chaliceandcrucible.com/ … is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) … https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ..