Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno's book Slamming Open the Door, available from Alice James Books, was among the top ten bestselling books of poetry in America in 2009.
Three Girls on the Beach
They are middle-class anemone
planted in the sand,
a riot of fluorescence,
pink and blue and red.
They lie between
the yes of the sea
and the no of the wood
and wire fence that
holds back desire.
And they are intimate,
in the way of thirteen- year-old girls,
lying close, telling truths,
now the ebb of betrayal,
now the flow of forgiveness.
Their surfboard with its cool
hot motorcycle flames
lies ready, too.
Who knows
when one of them
might plunge it into the ocean
and paddle, out of
sight, on her belly,
until she's gone,
gone, and then
stand up, laughing
in the spray, and
roar her way back.
Happy Accident
Oh boy, Oh happy boy,
At the intersection
In eyeglasses and a shirt
Like a peppermint.
How lucky, how manly
to know a need and fill it.
Minutes ago, a tree
fell across Allen's Avenue
And the conga line of cars
Began to snake in on itself
And we needed a traffic cop.
You heard the call
Smack in the middle
Of a game of toy plane,
And you carry it now like a flashlight
To add weight and flair to the swing of your arm,
As you signal each approaching car
To stop, to take a right,
no questions asked,
We pull up to you, sir,
We turn, we drive
To wherever the nose
Of your little plane points.