Carla Schwartz
Filmmaker and photographer Carla Schwartz’s poems have been widely published, including in The Practicing Poet (Diane Lockward, Ed) and in her collections “Signs of Marriage,” “Mother, One More Thing,” and “Intimacy with the Wind.” Her CB99videos youtube channel has 2,400,000+ views. Learn more at carlapoet.com, or wakewiththesun.blogspot.com or find her on Twitter (https://twitter.com/cb99videos), YouTube (https://youtube.com/cb99videos), Threads (https://threads.net/@cb99videos), BlueSky:( https://bsky.app/profile/cb99videos.bsky.social) or Instagram (https://instagram.com/cb99videos). Recent publications and acceptances include Banyan Review, The Ear, Channel, California Quarterly, Cutthroat, Gone Lawn, The Poet’s Touchstone, Ibbetson Street, Inquisitive Eater, Paterson Literary Review, New-Verse News, Remington Review, Triggerfish Critical Review, The MacGuffin, Verse-Virtual Online, and Leon. Carla Schwartz is a 2023 recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant. Her poem, “Pat Schroeder Was Our Mother,” won the 2023 New England Poetry Club E.E. Cummings Prize.
Let me Touch You
Let the rabbit tend
summer’s last flowers
my long-lived husband
my pliant muscle.
Let me touch you,
let me remind you
who you are.
Let us curl in bed
each with a book in hand
wait out the torrent storm.
Let the raging winds
batter our home
we’ll rattle yes
but lie entwined in hush.
Yes, I’ll remind you
my project poet
of your fenced lyrics
your well-lit free verse
and your sturdy elegies.
We’ve patched the mice
out of our house many a time
stuffed steel wool
up the shower drain at night.
Now this creaky home
like us, shows its age.
Tomorrow, tomorrow,
we’ll walk out in steamy air.
Take my hand, my heart,
it’s not too late for love.
