Resolutions by Susan J. Atkinson

January 12, 2022

Poem name: Resolutions Poet name: Susan J Atkinson Poem begins: 6 am and Marta sits at the breakfast table fingers carefully stepping over crumbs dishes washed and stacked, laundry folded neatly floors already mopped, though no one is expected visitors do not come to this house, and nothing is as still as this morning, the first of the year Marta sits alone building crumbs John has said no there will be no more children in this empty swell of quiet Marta sculpts crumbs into the scarred wood By 10, a little girl moulded from the bread smiles at her small heart beating. End of Poem. Credits: Copyright © Susan J. Atkinson Previously published in The Marta Poems (Silver Bow Publishing, 2020). Susan J. Atkinson’s poems have won a number of awards, most recently first prize in the 2019 National Capital Writers Contest and Honourable Mention in the 2020 Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse. She has new work in Grain Magazine and The Queen’s Quarterly. Her first full-length collection, The Marta Poems was published by Silver Bow Publishing in 2020 and her chapbook The Birthday Party, The Mariachi Player and The Tourist was released earlier in 2021 by Catkin Press. Visit www.susanjatkinson.com