Wild Court

An international poetry journal based in the English Department of King’s College London

Two poems by Kenneth Pobo

Meeting Olivia de Havilland

On a perfect summer morning,
Aunt Olive died. Age 96.
She said her happiest day
was meeting Olivia de Havilland
in 1964, “a peach.” Not

her wedding to Uncle Sal,
the cad. Divorce
sounded luscious,
but she claimed she’d
stick it out
like a snowed-in car,
wheels spinning. The snow

never melts, even in summer
when buds surge
into bloom, hungry
deer nearby.

The Lesson

My garden keeps teaching me how to wait.
I snap my fingers, hope to rouse a bloom
by the back of the garage or front gate.
My garden keeps teaching me how to wait
on it, coax each bud open and create
a new bed for an iris or Scotch broom.
My garden keeps teaching me how to wait.
I snap my fingers, hope to rouse a bloom.

Posted:

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Author:

Kenneth Pobo

Kenneth Pobo is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and nine full-length collections. Recent books include Bend of Quiet (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City (Circling Rivers), and most recently, At The Window, Silence (Fernwood Press). His work has appeared in Asheville Poetry Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Amsterdam Quarterly, Nimrod, Mudfish, Hawaii Review, and elsewhere.