Two Poems By Cora McCann Liderbach

Premonition

Gulls slice the air, wheeling, calling	
The moon dips into a sky-blue sea 
All my senses tingle
We walk the lake at sunset

The moon dips into a sky-blue sea
Clouds drift by—the trees bare
We walk the lake at sunset
I tremble at your words

Clouds drift by—the trees bare
You say I’m done here—
I tremble at your words
Your arm is the raft I cling to

You say I’m done here—
I thought we were your harbor
Your arm is the raft I cling to
My body quakes with loss

I thought we were your harbor—
My body quakes with loss
All my senses tingle
Gulls slice the air, wheeling, calling

A Story Told in Photographs

I miss the blissful little boy
the grin, the laugh, the impish eyes
teasing from old photographs.
And that’s how I’ll remember you;
not the way you are today—
so cold, so ill, so far removed.

You crossed the country, moved
away, to leave the broken boy
behind. Now you review your days
and scan the past with jaded eyes,
revise your history, criticize; you
belie the smile in photographs.

I sit and sift through photographs,
mourn the mirth outgrown, removed.
Childhood brought such joy to you,
Star Wars, Ninja Turtle boy—
till questions clouded your clear eyes,
where tempests brew today.

It’s hard to concentrate these days,
sorting through your photographs—
the early years, the kind, bright eyes;
the spark the years snuffed, then removed,
as if a stranger stole our boy—
as illness has robbed us of you.

You spurn the love we offer you,
erase the past, cut loose the days;
forget the love we used to buoy 
the struggling teen in photographs—
your hostile words and deeds remove
all understanding from our eyes. 

The world is harsher through your eyes,
I know; so you lash out at all you
fear will hurt you—one by one remove
the bonds with those who, on birthdays,
circle you in photographs,
cherish the sweet, sunny boy.

I miss that tenderhearted boy
who only lives in photographs—
but I must let you go today.

Cora McCann Liderbach is from Lakewood, Ohio. Her work has has been featured in The Broadkill Review, District Lit journal, Sad Girls Club literary blog, and in staged readings for the Cleveland Humanities Festival. She was a finalist in Gordon Square Review’s 2022 Ohio Writers Contest, and will appear in fall 2022 in Crab Creek Review and Kent State University’s literary magazine, Luna Negra.