[when i think of you]

after e.e. cummings

i see your bike left haphazard on the edge	
of the forbidden cricket pitch fringed 
with golden hued birds-foot trefoil
and clover, sky overhead cross-hatched

with vapour trails, like the lines that sketch
your face now; your face then was freckled,
your breath sweet with bubble gum,
lips stained orange with the juice of a Jubbly

(do you remember, it was the cheapest ice lolly)
after years lost in each other’s memory
i found you; since then we have clung
to each other like licheny flora on tree, rock, wall

faint fault lines deepening in our skin, never
enough to leach out the memories we share
and always enough to remind me of that summer
of cowslips and clover, when I think of you

Kim M. Russell, 25th April 2023

Image of birds-foot trefoil in a meadow by Wyxina Tresse on Unsplash

On the 25th day of NaPoWriMo, we are reading e e cummings’ poem [somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond], a classic love poem. Our challenge is to write a love poem that names at least one flower, contains one parenthetical statement, and in which at least some lines break in unusual places.

I tried to emulate cummings as closely as possible in layout and punctuation, but I couldn’t bring myself to omit spaces between punctuation and words – force of habit!

Also shared at the dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night.

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28 thoughts on “[when i think of you]”

  4. Beautiful response Kim with the format and style of ee cummings. Love the imagery specially on 2nd and 3rd stanza with bubble gum and cheap ice lolly. Happy writing for the rest of the month.

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  5. You NaPoWriMoers amaze me with the productivity. This is classic ee but steps further back into one’s beloved childhood. The imagery is so crisp and sweet, all the more so for acknowledging how much time has passed.

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  6. Something quite magical happens from that first line and the bike left haphazard – it immediately draws me into the time and reminiscence. From that line/image, the poem unfolds beautifully.

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  7. Well, I forgot you were working to a prompt, because the first line drew me in and held me there in borrowed memory, with the birds-foot trefoils (a favourite of mine) and the smell of that particular Jubbly… Such an atmosphere, though evanescent and on the edge of disappearing … so many unanswered questions …

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  13. So beautifully done, Kim, and it’s filled with the most wonderful images–the bike, the cheap ice lolly (what I’d call a popsicle, I think), and those memories of the cowslip summer. Poignant and lovely!

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