Surfaces — Blackbird Archive

← v15n2, Fall 2016

Take possession

of the blanket, the feel

of it, the smooth

and the lean, the lying

down of it, the way it

imitates the body.

This is the promise

I keep—to rest on the

bed under moonlight.

Yet so many cats

knead the surfaces,

their paws tap-dance,

wishing for food.

The dark summer

storm rips across

the bed, rumpling

covers like waves,

whitecaps against

each other.

Cats’ paws skim

the sheets as if

called by a higher spirit.

Their willowy bodies

curl together in sleep.

home animals solitude nature

MARGO TAFT STEVER

Margo Taft Stever is the author of four poetry collections: The Lunatic Ball (Kattywompus Press, 2015); The Hudson Line (Main Street Rag, 2012); Frozen Spring (Mid-List Press, 2002), which won the First Series Award for Poetry by Mid-List Press; and Reading the Night Sky (Riverstone Press, 1996), which won the Riverstone Poetry Chapbook Competition. Her poems have appeared in Salamander , Prairie Schooner , Rattapallax , Blackbird , New England Review , and elsewhere. She is the founder of The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center and the founding and current coeditor of Slapering Hol Press. Photo by Ben Larrabee