Bending to the Day, by Kimberly Satterfield

Bending to the Day

Wrap me in a shawl of

no expectation,

a blue shawl

with green metallic thread

made of pashmina & silk

a long shawl, wide shawl

that covers me

so only my eyes peek

out the half-opened window

to watch

the pelicans swoop & turn

in their sloppy formation

over small silver gold-tipped waves

of the San Francisco Bay.

I want nothing

but this moment of salt & breath

& this softness against my skin.

It is a yellow day

I feel it—neither bright or dull,

a simple clarity

like the gesture of open hands.

My heart beats bends to meet

the barely audible pulse of tides

on this lavish to-do-nothing day

of in-between—

not pulled into the emptiness

of winter

not pushed into the full glory

of spring

I drift almost imperceptibly

back & forth

in the flowered rocker

in praise of

what is effortless.

Kimberly Satterfield's second book, Reflections of the Long Light, Poem & Images, a collaboration with her husband, the painter Foad Satterfield, will be published in March 2024. Her first book, Voices from the Field, published in 2014, is a reflection on her twenty years as a social worker for Alameda County in California and her experience as a primary caregiver for both of her parents. Her chapbook, My Life in the Downstream, explores metaphysical principles. Kimberly’s work has appeared in Milvia Street, Gathering 11, Oakland Multicultural Journal, Street Spirit, Tuxedo, In Other Words and in the anthologies How to Begin, The pencil Writes the Dream, and The Gathering 11. She is a long-time member of writing groups Fresh Ink and Hillygalz.