Our next FPL
Off the Page Poetry Series will feature
poets Dede Fox and Terry Jude Miller on Wednesday, June 4 at 7pm.
A native Jewish Texan, Dede Fox
attended the University of the Americas in Mexico City and graduated with an
English degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She has continued her
writing education with InPrint Houston, SCBWI, Writers in Performance,
Highlights Writing Workshops, and Writers in the Schools. Texas State Poet Laureate (2011) David
Parsons has written about Dede’s book Confessions of a Jewish Texan: not since reading William Jay Smith’s
Cherokee Lottery, have I seen such poignant personal histories of a crash of cultures
put down so artfully on the page; reaffirming my belief that history is best
written, understood and fully realized through poetry.
Glow
and Spring Cleaning are from the book
Confessions of a Jewish Texan by Dede
Fox:
Glow
for Lirit and Yosepha
Out
of blue shadowed woods, fireflies
dart
through leafy hedges,
drift
up in silence, swimming
to
the moon in shimmering chains.
A
round-shouldered woman watches
from
a screened porch
as she rocks a
restless baby.
In
a world too hot and dry for magic,
she
hasn’t seen them for years,
thought
they no longer existed.
Now
she knows she can chase them,
chase
them with her grand-baby
beneath a summer
moon.
She
descends weather worn
steps,
captures one, feels it flutter
in
her closed hand. Her round-eyed
granddaughter
solemnly studies the spaces
between
her trembling fingers
and sees it glow.
Spring Cleaning
Get
out the broom and the dustpan.
Sweep
them into a pile.
Scoop
them up.
Lick
them off the floor if you have to.
Fill
up grocery sacks.
Fold
down the tops.
Get
every one.
Load
them into a wheelbarrow.
Dump
them into the garbage can.
Make
damn sure they’re gone,
Every
one of them,
That
confetti of excuses
Masking
fears,
Binding
us like slaves in Egypt
When
that Red Sea must be crossed
to
find the Promised Land.
