a literary arts journal
Penumbra
D. Dina Friedman
she/her
What am I doing here, driving the old clunker as radio pundits natter
about the war? I should be outside, sun-worshipping. It’s one of those climate-change days
that makes me believe there really is a God—who aims to spring surprises,
like spring in November until the 2 p.m. sun-sinking casts its dwindling rays
on a reality I can’t turn off even though I’ve zapped the screed
about the guy who quit the State Department, his sudden revelation
of the immorality of selling civilian-killing arms. All I can do is look askance
at the sun, or pull off the road because I can’t see in the smoldering light.
Not the cars coming at me; not the white line of the shoulder. It’s worse than thunder
where I can often spot a sliver of truth in the split
second after the wipers. In my next life I’d like to be a geranium,
or something that has no other intention but to bloom and wither.
And for the rest of this one, let me be unbothered
like the baby, who lets the crackers drip from his wet mouth
as he crawls through the yard, naming the only things I dare to handle:
Leaf. Rock. Mud.
D. Dina Friedman’s newest books are the poetry collection Here in Sanctuary—Whirling, (Querencia Press) and the short-story collection Immigrants (Creators Press), which was first runner up in the short-story category for the Eric Hoffer Award. Her previous books include two YA novels, Escaping Into the Night (Simon and Schuster), Playing Dad’s Song (Farrar Straus Giroux) and one book of poetry, Wolf in the Suitcase (Finishing Line Press). Dina has published in over a hundred literary journals including Rattle, Salamander, The Sun, Mass Poetry, Lilith, and Rhino. She has received two Best of the Net and four Pushcart Prize nominations. Visit her website at www.ddinafriedman.com or her blog on living a creative life in a creatively challenged universe at https://ddinafriedman.substack.com.