Poetry By Lucinda Trew

      Michael Cory CC



metaphor me

I say to my lover’s back, curled 
like early fern over laptop keys

metaphor me

I repeat til he turns, unfurling
wiping smudged glasses, waking
from dream

make me a color, make me a tree
a tsunami, a warrior queen – make me
a winter-white crane, a harpsichord
with broken strings

make me the bread you soak 
sauce with, the book that falls 
to your chest, the cheap watch 
you wind that doesn’t keep time 

make me a wizard, make me a wand
make me a river without any tears
make me a chime that strikes
in Shakespearean rhyme

make me a dragon, make me a swan
make me a locket, Minerva’s key
a safe to break and a get-away car

make me a silver-finned dolphin
a golden doubloon, a platinum 
promise breaking to tin 

metaphor me
then I’ll do you

​

​

portage

If you must carry me
find a way to water
lift me to your shoulder
as you do canoes

steady me, steady you
scan the path ahead
fan your feet for root 
and hitch of all that lies
beneath

listen for the whisper-breath
the sound of pending wet – 
thirsty kew of sparrow-
hawk, the give of funneled 
ground

read the signs of nearing
stream – rising fog, mayfly
drone, moss beard on the chin
of rock – find the unseen 
spring 

and when the river reveals
itself, ease me down to earth
then cup your hands that held 
so well    so long     so close 

drink from the veil 
of watershed 
and set me out to 
sea



​Lucinda writes, reads and contemplates the large and small of life in Weddington, N.C. Her poetry and essays have been featured in Timberline Review, Broad River Review, storySouth, Eastern Iowa Review, Mockingheart Review, Flying South and other journals and anthologies. She was named a North Carolina Poetry Society poet laureate award finalist in 2021 and 2022, is a Best of the Net nominee, a 2021 Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition finalist, and a Finishing Line Press New Women’s Voices chapbook finalist. She teaches at Wingate University and lives and writes in Union County, N.C.