Poetry By Terin Weinberg

         R. Miller CC




ARRYTHMIC DEMANDS

I wish your heart’s irregular beat would stop
             rocking me to sleep. I want you whole

in the morning, next to the mulberries,
             for your organs to agree. I’m jolted

awake by your teeth grinding to a fine
dust. I want you whole & in the harvest

moon’s light. I want to guide you by hand
to the bottom of the riverbank. I want you

& your blood to remain calm after a tussle
             with wasp’s venom, but your body boils

at mere sight. I want to see you unfold 
             into the breeze, see you build 

a shadow, a cover that competes with my favorite
spruce in the horse’s pasture. I want the echo

of your branches to guide me to the grass
            in beating sunlight, for your

sleep talking to say something worthwhile

for once. I want your whole heart, all mine,
fresh & beating to the tune of my whistle. 





ALTAR

There is no death at this altar,
but half of my family is rotten

from cancer. Our ashes strewn
across golf courses, held hostage

in urns, sunk to the bottom
of the ocean, are asking for more.

The diagnoses are stacking up
& my bookshelf is filling in

the time. I can’t keep track.
I need a place to stow the rot,

a place for it to grow. I need all 
sick organs to be quiet. I’m building

a place to pray, an altar
without death or loss.

I pray without thoughts and prayers.
I’m tired of packing up their

things: fishing tackle, shotguns,
rocks we collected & buffed together,

a twenty-year old painting of a mermaid
not giving a shit on a beach. I’m here

giving them away, giving away 
holding on to them; seeing them,

with someone else’s body.




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Terin Weinberg earned her MFA from Florida International University in Miami, Florida. She graduated with degrees in Environmental Studies and English from Salisbury University in Maryland. She is a lecturer in the English Department at DeSales University. Terin serves as a reader for Beaver Magazine. She has been published in journals including: The Normal School, Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment, Red Earth Review, Dark River Review, Split Rock Review, and Waccamaw. 
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