Peggy Labes

New York, New York, USA

Born and living in New York City - my children and grandchildren not very far. Started to write poetry at 10. Trained to teach children - ended up teaching adults.When my husband died a few years ago my poetry was a great solace. It also opened the doors to workshops in Bennington College, U. Of Iowa, Aspen, etc., where I met fine poets.As a mature female poet I feel we must guard against patronization of older women poets...no lowering of standards.

If I Have No Daughter

If I have no daughter
Who will care
When the sprockets of my life
Come undone
Or the surgeon's knife is poised
Who will share
The arcane rituals of my mind
Or laugh with me
Who will find me
Lost among the clouds
On a Summer day?

The Nursing Home

Silent,
Breathing the fetid air,
Skin the color of ivory
Left too long in the drawer,
Their life-leached bodies
Line the hall
As they wait
For the dining-room doors
To open.
Are you looking for someone?
For me, I said.
Not yet. You are not here.

Oneiric

I am the slit of light
That enters your room in the night
Nudging your dream with mine.
You sigh and turn your head away
From the pattern of my sleeplessness.

The dark is letting go
As the day crosses 82nd Street.