Saturn’s Return
By D.W. Baker
April 15, 2024
April 15, 2024
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“But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams”
-Maya Angelou, “Caged Bird” Spirit stirred – I was ready, but
my earthen body sputtered – blurred into a clockwork motion – thus unthinking: I was caged. What could show my wings that I was not a flightless bird? Then I learned to listen for the ghost who stands to sing – the one I welcomed early on before I knew my age – sounding out the syllables of steps toward the grave, I found the dance that rhymes with me: not of desperation, but of resonance with dreams. |
D.W. Baker is a submerging poet from St. Petersburg, Florida, where he writes about place, bodies, belonging, and the end of the world. His work appears in Sundog Lit, Corporeal Lit, Green Ink Poetry, and Modern Haiku, among others, and has been nominated for Best of the Net. He reads for Cosmic Daffodil and Hearth & Coffin. See more at dwbakerpoetry.com
Author's Note:
The title of “Saturn's Return” refers to an astrological concept for stages of life which change over every 29.5 years. This poem memorializes the roles of self-knowledge and self-acceptance in the transition to feeling at home in one's adult body circa age 30.