Rita Dove

Debbie (Downer) does Mother’s Day

It’s a good thing I passed by a playground before I found the cemetery I was on the hunt for. Because “Happy Mother’s Day, I see dead people” is twisted, even for a twisty elf like me.   But I do see dead people this Mother’s Day—my mother who died the week before Mother’s Day […]

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A chain that holds

Last Saturday morning I participated in a breast cancer walk. The night before, I leafed through my poem stash to pick out a few to take with me, and it was then that I realized that a blog post on breast cancer should include my own health history.   I felt uneasy about that for a few reasons.   […]

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Standing up by sitting down

  Rosa By Rita Dove   How she sat there, the time right inside a place so wrong it was ready.   That trim name with its dream of a bench to rest on. Her sensible coat.   Doing nothing was the doing: the clean flame of her gaze carved by a camera flash.   […]

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