2 poems by Dede Fox, off the page poetry series

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.