Author’s Note: “Moving Out” recalls watching my son pack his bags to move to a distant state. It felt momentous and, at the same time, made me appreciate his deep attachment to home and family. I expected to face a cleanup job once he drove away. Instead, he startled me with a flash of maturity. Writing this poem made me remember Robert Frost’s advice for poets: “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.”
Moving Out
a clingy baby, slow to settle, never one
to let go, he became a keeper of shells,
stones, clay-modeled frogs, chessmen,
a piler-up of dusty stuffed animals,
sleepless and sad for weeks that time
when some disappeared in a move,
his room still hung with old posters,
corners curling—Jimi Hendrix,
Green Lantern, Chaplin’s little tramp—
while into his car, he stuffs hiking boots,
skis, favorite pants, violin in its case,
then, from the doorway, looks back
at the mongrel piles on the floor—
I don’t want to leave you with this mess—
and returns to toss out tie-dyed shirts
from Quaker camp, drop diaries
and love letters into a box, and gather
me a caulk bouquet, six tubes
securely planted in a paint bucket,
caulk enough to patch all our cracks
Susan Okie is a doctor, poet, and former Washington Post medical reporter. She received her MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College in 2014. Her first poetry collection, Woman at the Crossing, will be published in October by Grid Books. Her chapbook, Let You Fly, was published in 2019. She teaches patient-interviewing and clinical ethics to medical students at Georgetown University and to volunteers at a safety-net clinic for uninsured adults. Susan lives in Bethesda, Maryland. Website: www.susanokie.com
Delmarva Review publishes the most compelling new poetry, fiction, and nonfiction from thousands of submissions annually. Based in St. Michaels, Maryland, the literary journal has featured the new writing of more than 500 authors since its first edition fifteen years ago. Over forty percent are from the Chesapeake-Delmarva region. The journal is available in print and digital editions from Amazon.com and other booksellers. Support comes from tax-deductible contributions and a grant from Talbot Arts with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council. Website: www.DelmarvaReview.org
Susan Baker says
How poignant! How relatable! I loved this with an old familiar ache in my heart!