Poetry by Tricia Marcella Cimera

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Cherry Tree


Today I walked     past
The house my father died in
There     was his cherry tree
He planted   blooming pink   Unaware
that I was near





Apologies and Lesser Creatures
  for Sunny

You come to me in a dream 
and tell me not to cry; 
that you were old 
and never going to get better.  
I had no choice.  
You understand.
Your eyes are golden
and you blink slowly
as you gaze at me.
Your fur is tiger-orange and white,
and in my dream, it almost glows.

You do not look old.  
You look immortal,
like I always wished you could be.
I cry that I am sorry,
the words falling uselessly
as in life they often do.
You say my name quietly −
then disappear.

Appeared in Yellow Chair Review, 2015





The Telling Heart

In the hospital,
she watches her heart
now visibly pumping
on a screen, in a box
called an echo
cardiogram machine.
Strange to see.
She is here yet
her heart is there.
Inside but outside.
Hidden and exposed.

Her doctor suddenly 
leans forward,
close to the screen,
listening intently.
When she asks to what,
he is annoyed, saying –
If you let me listen,
I can hear,
just let me listen! –
and turns back to her
throbbing heart,
focusing avidly, ardently,
and the heart,
it beats faster, louder,
drowning her out.

What can it be saying?
Her very own heart,
she should know.
Beating inside of her
and no one else.
Nothing to give away,
to say or betray,
her own private heart.
But what if  -there is a hole
and it leaks?
She watches her doctor’s face
and knows.
Apparently the heart
is telling,
telling all,
telling
her whole story.

Published in Prairie Light Review, 2008


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Tricia Marcella Cimera is a Midwestern poet with a worldview. Look for her work in these diverse places (some forthcoming): Buddhist Poetry Review, The Ekphrastic Review, Foliate Oak, Failed Haiku, I Am Not A Silent Poet, Mad Swirl, Silver Birch Press, Yellow Chair Review, Wild Plum and elsewhere.  She has a micro collection of water-themed poems called THE SEA AND A RIVER on the Origami Poems Project website.  Tricia believes there’s no place like her own backyard and has traveled the world (including Graceland).  She lives with her husband and family of animals in Illinois / in a town called St. Charles / by a river named Fox.

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