Poem of the Week: “Six Months” by Vona Groarke

Selected from Vona Groarke’s book, Spindrift, this poem details the importance of every small moment as time flies by. As she details six months in short, vivid vignettes, Groarke reminds herself (and us) that time is precious.

Six Months

APRIL

My daughter buys
her first perfume.
It’s called ‘One Summer’.

MAY

Geese hemstitch the wetlands:
I foretell a skittery afternoon.

JUNE

Pick up the day
by four white hours;
shake it out
over long grass.

JULY

Blue sky on the radio,
all four car windows down.
Is this what it means, then,
to have friends?

AUGUST

The jet plane
tucking up its wheels
jolts me back years
to a light cadenza’s
lift-off in my womb.

SEPTEMBER

A twinge in my elbow chimes, pretty much,
with the indicator of the school bus in front
and the backbeat of whatever song
is plied on the radio.
My son knows the words.
This is my life.
Let me want nothing more.

–Vona Groarke, from Spindrift (2010)