[Poem-a-Week] Rebecca Archer’s Great Expectations by Aileen Cassinetto

-- after Maya Angelou

It is sunrise, with hope its arrogant/ rider. How it sprang up, buoyed,/ as I ran to catch the bus and almost/ missed it. There’s a heartbeat in my throat. / Pretend I’m a rain bird or a fire horse/ fueled by miracles. I’m here/ short-winded and salted trying to catch/ my breath standing near the front of the bus/ gripping a handhold that is too high/ for me. I am radiant and impossible,/ and there’s a bird caged in my throat, a poem/ in my pocket that aches to gallop, let go/ the handhold. Pretend I’m a versicle,/ a miracle, the hope that gets you going. 

This poem was inspired by Rebecca M. Archer’s painting, “Great Expectations.” To view the artwork: https://deyoungopen2023.artcall.org/submissions/qr-view/428236

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Aileen Cassinetto is the author of two poetry collections and three chapbooks, and her most recent works have appeared in American Poets, Cultural Daily, and Poetry Magazine, among others. She was named an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow in 2021.

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