Prodigal – a poem by Jean Biegun

Prodigal


And so to them I gave a foolish son
the couple with scientific bent

and that woman lit by poetry
a daughter who was starch

            The more forward of archangels 
            asked why …

That they come to inhabit
my labyrinthine heart of course

sample batches of earthy alchemies 
stirring dust to sweat to ecstatic dance

mine tunnels through ice mountains
and then melt those same mountains 

Thus to see me and sip 
my honeyed air

Jean Biegun is retired in California after a lifetime in the Midwest USA. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She has received two Pushcart nominations and written two poetry collections, Hitchhikers to Eden and Edge Effects (2022 and 2024, Kelsay Books). Recent work is in Third Wednesday, The Scarred Tree: Poetry on Moral Injury, Ekstasis, Unbroken, and Thin Places and Sacred Spaces: A Poetry Anthology (Amethyst Press).