Origin Story
by Terry Miller
what is yours
does it begin with your father
hanging wind chimes outside
a bedroom window
through which honeysuckle
and night song slipped
into the summer air
above your parents’ bed
like a welcomed temptation
does it glow in the darkness
as it plummets from your lips
sprinkling on borrowed blue eyes
like spring rain falling from linden boughs
does it join the popping of pine knots
in the fireplace like your brother
falling from a ladder beneath a fig tree
are parts of it lost in discarded time
like fragments of a Sappho statue
—come—behind the school house—
lift your skirt—show me yours
and I’ll show you mine
Terry Jude Miller is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet from Houston. He received the 2018 Catherine Case Lubbe Manuscript Prize for his book, The Drawn Cat’s Dream. His work has been published in the Southern Poetry Anthology, The Lily Poetry Review, The Comstock Review, and The Oakland Review and in scores of other publications. He formerly served as 1st Vice Chancellor of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. For more info, visit: https://www.TerryJudeMiller.com
