Poems by Rose Mary Boehm

A Rainforest Night

Sounds of the dark, creatures of between,
unseen, suspected, suspended, sustained
by your fears. Night monkeys giggle,
termites crunch, bats whistle,
the giant wing of a mythical moth gently strokes your face.
Snakes and monsters, the circus clowns
you knew would find you one day.
A boomerang made of moon suspended
in the night sky, always returning, returning, turning...
The caiman closes its jaws,
a fish splashes in the slow, silvery waves of liquid mercury.
You don’t trust your senses or your hesitant steps,
knowing that all laws of nature have been suspended.

There is a Time for Everything

Once upon a time I believed. At thirteen
I was confirmed in the Lutheran church.

There even was a time when I loved
my parents with all my heart,
when my life depended on their love,
when my budgie flew out of the kitchen
window and was probably eaten by a cat.

There was a time when the future
seemed full of promise, when, one day,
I would buy a red dress just like the one
I had seen somewhere in a fashion magazine.

Then there came a time when I was longing
to be kissed, to be desired,
to feel his heavy breathing.

One day my prince would come,
one day I would have a beautiful home
with two angelic children, all waiting for
my husband to come home from work.

There were those years when the world
called, and I severed my former bonds.

There was the time when we bought
our first house with gardens,
front and back.

There came a time when the black birds
of sorrow nested on our roof.