Caroline Goodwin
Caroline Goodwin served as the first Poet Laureate of San Mateo County from 2014-16. A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford, her books are Trapline, Peregrine and The Paper Tree. She lives in Montara with her two daughters and teaches at California College of the Arts and Stanford Continuing Studies.
Buffalo Check
North of the wheat field
and tributary, our daughter
crouches in the ditch
(she has your eyes she
has always had your eyes)
her lovely face wrecked
by your death, the moon
setting at her back. Cool
water through her fingers.
What woven piece might
I offer against this night?
Far away, a firepit and saucepan.
Far away, a circle of drums.
Tell me, which shade of wool
might I tighten? Which thread?
Valentine
bullet-shaped
king salmon
in the struggle
jewel tones
in the curve of each scale
each miniscus and blue iris
blown up, blown out
bodies crowded
in the reeds
the shallows
their meat released
soft as feathers
all the way to the rivermouth
Attachments area