Cheryl Denise
Cheryl Denise is a proud West Virginian Appalachian with strong Canadian roots. She lives in the hills near Philippi, in a timber frame home she built with her husband Mike Miller. She is author of the poetry books, Fences (2021), What’s in the Blood (2012) and I Saw God Dancing (2005), all published by Cascadia Publishing House LLC. Cheryl’s poems are included in Porch Poems (2023), a unique collaborative chapbook featuring four well-known WV poets published by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions.
Upon Being Asked, When You Talk to Yourself
Who are You Talking To?
God, I say,
or the other side,
a familiar stranger
in that distant land from where I came.
Those conversations, prayers, watering my toes,
growing my body old and lovely.
My mother would think I’m doing too much yoga,
reading too many Rumi poems
which like newspaper horoscopes may hold truths,
but are dangerous she warned my teenage self
as I lingered on the back pages.
At church my mother swallows God four times a year.
When I was a child, she paid homage to him
while sewing Easter dresses, while hiding tomato plants
behind her red tea roses by the porch.
She’s never spoken to me about such things.
I hope she talks to herself in her apartment,
I hope she knows.
