Recognition by Sandi Leibowitz
I never was
and never will be
that bride posing
by the lake, luminous
in her many-petaled gown
white as a ripe water lily,
grinning groom beside her
nor any of those limber
women doing yoga before
the Bethesda Fountain,
their slender arms arcing
in tandem like members
of a well-trained corps de ballet
nor that toddler in pink
pushing not one
but two
dolly carriages,
secure in her abundance
and her own preciousness
but perhaps I am,
can be,
the rose-breasted grosbeak
that in the narrow strip
of secret meadow
bathes with abandon
in a sunlit puddle,
splashing muddy droplets
to the grass
Sandi Leibowitz is a singer and newly-retired children's librarian living in New York City. She is the author of Ghost Light, Eurydice Sings and The Bone-Joiner. Recent work appears in Verse-Virtual, Spillwords, Sheila-na-Gig, and Red Eft Review. Her speculative poems have won second- and third-place Dwarf Stars, and been nominated for the Elgin, Rhysling, Pushcart Prize, and Best of the Net awards.