run aground sometimes ashore

—for Lucille Clifton

Kathleen Hellen

farther than the fathered world
closer than the mother-wild

i did not know to row it 
right I had to left and left

wind and waters turning
dragged and dragged    again 
we never die but 
circling, sink—let

extraordinary fingers
slip

we are never 
un-
invited  

to the bowl of it

Kathleen Hellen is the author of two chapbooks and two books of poetry, most recently The Only Country Was the Color of My Skin. Honors include prizes from the H.O.W. Journal, Washington Square Review, and Washington Writers’ Publishing House for her prize-winning collection Umberto’s Night. Her work has been featured on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily.