Turning Seventy – a poem by Liz Nakazawa

Turning Seventy


one month before seventy
moving through a landscape of thanks
for Octobers and Puccini
halves of horse chestnut cases
open and yawning on the sidewalk in autumn sun

delighting in
green mossy paquettes
pantomimes of pufferfish
balloon fish and offspring
locusts and honey

one month before seventy
bearing my witnesses:
the hope of letting go of my stories
each story as common as grass
and reframe regrets as pokerfaced masterpieces to ignore

at seventy I will pull back the curtain
revealing islands of weeping mixed with marionettes of joy
pirouettes of astonishment
trembling, pendulous and grateful 
rejoicing in worship everywhere

Liz Nakazawa is the editor of Deer Drink the Moon:Poems of Oregon. This is an anthology of 33 Oregon poets writing nature poems. Her own poetry has appeared in Willawa, Timberline Review, Amethyst Review, ahundredgourds and other publications.