STIRRING
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
PATRICIA BOLLIN
Broken belt, motor char, half-chewed cord –
this mechanical pal must go.
Ten years of sucking up bits of my life.
Hair. Dead ants. Crushed chips, fingernails,
things that fell off
particles of whole
pieces of years –
cycled through that belly.
Secrets, mistakes. Solid & ephemeral.
I liked to watch them disappear from walls and floor.
It made rooms fresh, a guard of my good name
with its tidy blue frame and eerie light.
Specks of some ex-lovers hang on, clinging
to the rolling brush, hanging in the hose.
As it heads to the rented trash box
I’m thinking, Oh-
the willingness of the mouth
the luxury of discard.
Patricia Bollin serves as board chair of Soapstone, a non-profit in Oregon, dedicated to supporting women’s writing since 1998. She recently retired as program officer for AmeriCorps in Oregon. Her poetry has appeared in print and on-line publications including: The Fourth River, Tulane Review, Mezzo Cammin, Oregon Literary Review and will be included in the forthcoming anthology Footbridge Above The Falls.
