Amy Barone
Plume
We were playful gazelles in an early era
before the songs of my sisters died.
A circle of three now forms a ring of fire—
no end in sight for volcano after volcano.
Smoldering smoke and ash sears. Little relief
from natural springs; Yellowstone is far from here.
Unsettled distress, dispersed over years
since our mother's death, rises like lava
from Mt. Etna, which erupted last week.
I'm Planet Earth, was once sky.
The conniver became Uranus the Ice Giant
and the babe now Venus the Morning Star,
who no longer needs a night-light.
She covets the dark, is immune from fright.
Bio
Amy Barone's new poetry collection, Defying Extinction, was published by Broadstone Books in 2022. New York Quarterly Books released her collection, We Became Summer, in 2018. She wrote chapbooks Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press) and Views from the Driveway (Foothills Publishing.) She belongs to the Poetry Society of America and the brevitas online poetry community. From Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, she lives in New York City.