COLD TEA
Come upon later,
like a dream recalled at lunchtime.
Dark as deep water, bone cold.
Where is she now, the woman
who poured into a white cup?
She was standing on the lip
of the whole river with her plan
when the current called her and she had to
go: answer the knocking
that she in her not-knowing
called interruption.
—from Rattle #34, Winter 2010
__________
Sarah Pemberton Strong: “‘Cold Tea’ is my first published poem since becoming a mother, so it’s fitting that it’s a meditation on something so central to the experience of parenting: being interrupted. Though I discovered in writing the poem that being interrupted is also a reminder that I don’t know what the next moment holds in store.” (web)
