Suzanne M. Yuskiw

Fragment

Shall we consider broken things? Unfinned?

Unwinged. The torn. The crocus petals, sundered.

A thought that dies before the tongue can bend

to give it shape? Have you ever wondered

how to mend a shining toy, the pieces missing?

Or seen a flight of tongueless yellow birds?

Shall I tell you all the tongueless dreams I’m wishing?

Shall I write a foolish sonnet, lacking words?

I have not known you long, in truth, or deeply:

only quips and casual flights our talk.

The dreams you shape, the songs you sing alone

are treasure for some other soul to reap.

Yet leaving now, I know the sting of blade through bone,

the ghost that stays after the hand is gone. 

Suzanne M. Yuskiw, a Boston native, now living in Aiken, South Carolina, has been published in Kaleidoscope, and has recently won top prize for her poem “D-Day 2024” in Aiken's poetry celebration. She enjoys the challenge of making new the tried and true old forms.