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Column 771

December

Intro by Ted Kooser
12.29.2019

I’m a big fan of short, imag­is­tic, haiku-like poems, and here’s a fine one for the end of the year. It’s by Sarah Fre­ligh of New York, from her book Sad Math, from Moon City Press. 

December

On the fire escape, one
stupid petunia still blooms,
purple trumpet blowing
high notes at the sky long
after the rest of the band
has packed up
and gone home.

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2015 by Sarah Freligh, "December," from Sad Math, (Moon City Press, 2015). Poem reprinted by permission of Sarah Freligh and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.