Heartland Review, Kentucky Monthly Magazine, Keeping the Flame Alive,
Fallen, Rebirth, The Rye Whiskey Review, Walden’s Poetry and Reviews,
Poet-Tree Magazine, American Poet, Mays Publishing and Kentucky
Humanities. Her books include Abstract Ribbons, What is Beauty, and
The Eighth.
She has been featured in podcasts and the Kentucky Author Celebration, Kentucky Writer Celebration, Insomniacathon, Vagabond Poet National Tour, Endless Horizon, and 2025 Ohio Valley Folkways Symposium. Shegives poetry readings nationally and will be at 2026 Gonzofest in New York City.
Words From the Other Side
i saw you from outside my eye
that first fleeting mist of blackness
at my feet racing across the dust bunnies
not sure of your realness
caught in a nebulous gray mist
or were you just a polished apple
stuck in my mind from long ago
you were here I saw you here
shadow following my body
down the quiet hallway and back
yet when I turned you were gone again
i could swear you tried to talk
today at breakfast you brushed my arm
a finger or hand warmed by blood
you darted into the sinking wrinkles
of a cream swirled coffee mug
i saw you from the inside of my third eye
it was you i know it was you
wavy steam only inches above the floor
my third eye never lies
next time when you try to talk
i will listen closely all those words
that were never spoken
when you walked among us
Mary Lou Because You Asked About My Chickens
you asked about my chickens
they are everywhere
the roosters hens their love and pecks
on icy mornings i chipped away their water
in the darkness of the dawn
into the old weathered walls of the coop
i lifted the feeder bigger than me
and clucked for them to fly from
their roosts to meet the grain
watching the shininess of their wings
bright reds with hidden golds
dark blacks with dazzling blues
the deep red of wattles and combs
strutting flapping accepting me into their flock
my hands softly lifted brown eggs
from hay filled nesting boxes
the eggs were marvels to hold
i kissed each one before placing them
in a flower printed muslin seed sack
draped and tied across my shoulders
it fit like a gown and held them like a mama
like i wished for mama arms to hold me
in summer below the sunflowers and apples
i held rhode island reds to my chest
because they let me smell their feathers
i sat in the dusty dirt with black silkies
who were curious about my toes
i knew what love was when i watched them
come closer to my heart with trust in their struts
i live in the city now in this other lifetime
smelling the fumes of progress and traffic
instead of the sweetness of hay scented by hens
i brought the chickens with me
the roosters and hens are frozen in place
ceramic and steady they still call me theirs
they surround me on shelves from room to room
yesterday you asked why they are with me
i answered because they were my beginnings
feathered reminders of how i learned to love
in the darkness of dawn and light of dusk
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