My Angry No-Home Brother
Laura Lippman
in my dream he came to visit
he spoke calmly of investments,
he wore brown shoes, khakis, and a leather vest
a blizzard of madrone flowers fell
all over the paths
odorless and relentless
though light-winged they littered the walk
they rolled into crevices
and lay atop earth’s dark loam
in my dream my angry no-home brother
understood stocks and bonds and portfolios––
was affable and reasonable and lived in a house
in the dream the blossoms fell
festooning the dumpsters
’til the trash truck came
Laura Celise Lippman’s work has appeared in Avatar Review, Brief Wilderness, The Broken Plate, Crack the Spine, Crosswinds, El Portal, Evening Street Review, Flights, Hey I’m Alive Magazine, La Presa, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Perceptions Magazine, Plainsongs, Pontoon Poetry, Poydras Review, Journal of Family Practice, Neologism Poetry Journal, New English Review, and Sin Fronteras/Writers Without Borders. Her work is also included in the book Writing While Masked Reflections of 2020 and Beyond. She attended Bryn Mawr College and received her M.D. from the Medical College of Pennsylvania. She practiced medicine for thirty-seven years and raised two children in the Pacific Northwest. Since retirement, she loves her weekly poetry study group, enjoys the outdoor activities, and study of the natural world.