Poetry by Charlene Stegman Moskal
for Barnett
You were a surprise—
planted in early spring
in soil too dry
to hold the essence of you,
but there you were
digging in
like the Bellflower
that has ridden the wind,
dropped gently or tumbled
into a dark, moist, earth-spiced bed
to carry the generations
that shaped its destiny
to grow , bloom, offer itself
to the world as a spark of color,
royal purple heralding the summer
against a background green as hope.
And here you are,
my own unexpected Bellflower
just when I was sure
the field had gone fallow.
Charlene Stegman Moskal is a Teaching Artist for the Las Vegas Poetry Promise Organization. She is published in numerous anthologies, print magazines and online. Her chapbooks are One Bare Foot (Zeitgeist Press), Leavings from My Table (Finishing Line Press) with a third from Kelsay Books in Fall 2023.
