True Enough by M.J. Iuppa

          Howden Pond, 2021

Standing at the pond’s edge, watching four swans
sleep soundly, heads tucked beneath folded wings, I
wish I could live passively, letting hours slip by with-
out a worry of wind riffling over the water’s surface,
over white feathers that compose these bodies drifting
like clouds, like voices in a dream unsung . . .

How often I hear music when I watch this quartet
floating in an accidental arrangement— never once have
I heard the same song, but a melody made better by the pull
of memory—these idle dreamers passing me like countless
hours I’ve wasted—we wake together, shaking off the chill
of what is unimaginable, knowing there will be a time when
we no longer find ourselves dreaming.



M.J. Iuppa’s fifth full-length poetry collection The Weight of Air is forthcoming from Kelsay Books in May of 2022. For the past 33 years, she has lived on a small farm near the shores of Lake Ontario. Check out her blog: mjiuppa.blogspot.com for her musings on writing, sustainability and life’s stew.