Hey there. I apologize for not putting up a blog post yesterday. It was one of my heavy teaching days, and then I had multiple meetings after school, and then last night was my flash fiction writing class. I was on Zoom more than I wasn’t, almost the entire day and evening from 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. And then I needed to go to bed early, which is why I didn’t spend an extra half hour on screens after all of that. To compensate, I’ll post two separate poem posts today.

The first is from Cyra Dumitru, another Mutabilis Press poet.

My favorite thing about this poem is its unrhymed sonnet form; it might appear to be free verse, but its fourteen lines and occasional slant rhyme and very strong argument suggest otherwise. I admit I also appreciate that this poem reminds me that in the calculus of my life and the way I spend my time, I shouldn’t let housework become my default activity, that at the end of my life I won’t weigh the virtue of a magazine-quality house equally with literally anything else good. So maybe I should relax about it, just a bit. (I know my family will appreciate that.)

Reason Not to Dust

Let there be shivers of recognition
as we slide our fingers along
windowsills and bookshelves,
tops of kitchen cabinets.

Let fingertips feel kinship with
what has settled: drifted
unseen through open doors.
Let us see ourselves

in this delicate shedding,
memory of skin,
infinite debris of stars:
what we will become—

slightly heavier than breath,
levitating lightly upon wind

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Go to this month’s first Poem-A-Day to learn how to participate in a game as part of this year’s series. You can have just a little involvement or go all the way and write a cento. I hope you’ll join in!

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Cyra S. Dumitru has lived in San Antonio for nearly 40 years. She teaches poetry writing and writing as wellness courses at St. Mary’s University. Certified as a Poetic Medicine Practitioner, she also provides therapeutic writing circles for: college students confronting mental health issues, women veterans voicing their experiences, LGBTQ teens embracing their identities, and adults voicing their spiritual journeys. Her poems have appeared in numerous literary journals, regional anthologies, and Dumitru has four published books of poetry.