Issue > Poetry
Susan Rothbard

Susan Rothbard

Susan Rothbard's poetry has appeared in The Literary Review, Poet Lore, Pif Magazine, The Paterson Literary Review, The National Poetry Review and other journals. Her work has been featured on Verse Daily, and she won the 2011 Finch Prize for Poetry. She received her M.F.A. in creative writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University and teaches English and creative writing at Livingston High School in New Jersey.

The Marigolds

The marigolds still quarrel in the bed
we made beside the house last spring. With fall
near gone and winter on its way, we're ready
to be done with marigolds. We quarrel. The bed
they shared with parsley, basil, thyme has bred
another batch where none should stand at all.
Marigolds? Still quarreling? The bed
we made should hide, not house, such spring in fall.

That New

At the market today, I look for Piñata
apples, their soft-blush-yellow. My husband
brought them home last week, made me guess at
the name of this new strain, held one in his hand
like a gift and laughed as I tried all
the names I knew: Gala, Fuji, Honey
Crisp—watched his face for clues—what to call
something new? It's winter, only tawny
hues and frozen ground, but that apple bride
was sweet, and I want to bring it back to him,
that new. When he cut it, the star inside  
held seeds of other stars, the way within
a life are all the lives you might live,
each unnamed, until you name it.

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