The Retirement Party by Michael H. Brownstein

35 years

condensed into what?

A pumpkin skin lorry?

An underwear picker?

Every year the tree

lets go of everything

dead, builds another ring,

sends its bark on a trip

around its trunk.

Every year the perennial

lets go of everything

above ground but holds

an essence to root.

Every year the banana plant

dies, and still the stalk

comes back again–

year after year after year.

35 years

and what have we learned?

Everything can fill a box.

Still–where is the

congratulatory watermelon

the large cup full of white cheese?

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Michael H. Brownstein has been widely published throughout the small and literary presses. His work has appeared in The Café Review, American Letters and Commentary, Skidrow Penthouse, Xavier Review, Hotel Amerika, After Hours, The Camel’s Hump, Free Lunch, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, The Pacific Review and others. In addition, he has eight poetry chapbooks including The Shooting Gallery (Samidat Press, 1987), Poems from the Body Bag (Ommation Press, 1988), A Period of Trees (Snark Press, 2004) and What Stone Is (Fractal Edge Press, 2005).

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Brownstein taught elementary school in Chicago’s inner city (he is now retired), but he continues to study authentic African instruments with his students, conducts grant-writing workshops for educators and the State of Illinois Title 1 Convention, and records performance and music pieces with grants from the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs, the Oppenheimer Foundation, BP Leadership Grants, and others.

____________________

Editor’s Note: Please continue praying for Bennett, and prayerfully consider contributing to the  Compassionate Creativity fundraiser happening this month. Let’s find this little boy a home!