“Forbearance” published in issue 30 of Damselfly Press

Below is an excerpt from my latest publication in Damselfly Press‘s issue 30

My poem titled “Forbearance” is set to appear in my next collection, The Starling’s Song (Black Swift Press, 2015)

FORBEARANCE

When the morning is darkest

we are roused by the birds

in the plum tree. I pull him

from the bed, beg him accompany

me to watch the egrets wake

in the cypress from the mist-veiled

cliff. I want to teach him forbearance,

point to the flowers that have appeared

along the path to the cove—

new irises have broken through

the soil, having burst from winter

hiding. I picture him leaning over

a shallow pool at ebb tide to touch

a slimed blade of kelp, his earlier

stubbornness dispelled. I imagine

I would not feel victory. I’d have

been impassioned by the way he

delicately gathered a fingerling

in his palm to show me forgiveness.

He sees things for what they are,

and nothing more. I’d have given

my hands that he might recognize

humility standing beside the sea,

the enormity of it before him.

* * *

BRI BRUCE is an editor, graphic designer, and publisher from Santa Cruz, California. With a bachelor’s degree in writing from UC Santa Cruz, her work has previously appeared in The Sun Magazine, The Soundings Review, and The Monterey Poetry Review, among others. Bruce is the award-winning author of The Weight of Snow.