Dream, Three Ways

Carol Grametbauer

from inside winter’s vise                    crushed in the grip of cold
I dreamed a flowering chaos              I dreamed a June canvas
of milkweed crowding roadsides        a million blossoms aglow
creamy bindweed flowers                   bobbing in a breeze
humming with bumblebees                as if they were alive
the rustle and buzz                              the sonorous summer-sounds
of the season’s fervor                         on a sun-struck afternoon
piping me away                                  like a solstice choir processing
to a green and luminous place            to an ethereal Eden
my soul’s delight                                built of air and longing

Carol Grametbauer is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Homeplace (Main Street Rag, 2018) and Now & Then (Finishing Line Press, 2014). Her poems have appeared in journals including Appalachian Heritage, Connecticut River Review, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Artemis Journal, and Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, as well as in a number of anthologies.