Tonight, the sky’s a picture box
where stars that pulse and pulsate
are like fireflies my sister and I
tried to catch, but couldn’t keep
in our hands long enough to put in jars,
and carry them like lanterns in a storm.
We would wait for the darkness
when bats that looked like birds
would rise up from our tree
flitter, flutter, flying far away.
When dishes smacked against
kitchen walls and blinds slammed shut,
we knew we had to go
somewhere else.
Our navigators:
street lamps,
the brightest stars,
a steady white moon.
Author Bio:
Sherri Levine lives in Portland, Oregon where she teaches English as a Second Language to adult immigrants and refugees at Portland Community College and Portland State University. Her work has been published in The Timberline Review, Hartskill Review, VoiceCatcher: A Journal of Women’s Voices & Visions, Verseweavers, Perspectives Magazine, The Poeming Pigeon, and The Sun Magazine. She won First Prize (Poet’s Choice) in the Oregon Poetry Association’s Biannual Contest (2017). Sherri recently served as Poetry Editor for VoiceCatcher. Her debut chapbook, In These Voices, has just been released by Poetry Box. She escaped the long harsh winters of upstate New York and has ever since been happily soaking in the Oregon.
where stars that pulse and pulsate
are like fireflies my sister and I
tried to catch, but couldn’t keep
in our hands long enough to put in jars,
and carry them like lanterns in a storm.
We would wait for the darkness
when bats that looked like birds
would rise up from our tree
flitter, flutter, flying far away.
When dishes smacked against
kitchen walls and blinds slammed shut,
we knew we had to go
somewhere else.
Our navigators:
street lamps,
the brightest stars,
a steady white moon.
Author Bio:
Sherri Levine lives in Portland, Oregon where she teaches English as a Second Language to adult immigrants and refugees at Portland Community College and Portland State University. Her work has been published in The Timberline Review, Hartskill Review, VoiceCatcher: A Journal of Women’s Voices & Visions, Verseweavers, Perspectives Magazine, The Poeming Pigeon, and The Sun Magazine. She won First Prize (Poet’s Choice) in the Oregon Poetry Association’s Biannual Contest (2017). Sherri recently served as Poetry Editor for VoiceCatcher. Her debut chapbook, In These Voices, has just been released by Poetry Box. She escaped the long harsh winters of upstate New York and has ever since been happily soaking in the Oregon.
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