Grounds

by Lee Peterson

Grounds

I cannot not bear him,
love him, claim him.
Can you?

Call me claimant, citizen,
supplicant, friend. He is mine

yours, ours
to love and cover.

His limbs
belong to me.
His death a fault

of all our sins.
Meant—unmeant.
Does it matter?

Argument.        Argument.        Air.

Author Lee Peterson is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Rooms and Fields: Dramatic Monologues from the War in Bosnia (Kent State University Press) and In the Hall of North American Mammals (Cider Press Review) and a chapbook, The Needles Road (Seven Kitchens Press). Her work has appeared in Poetry Daily, Verse Daily and such journals as Arts & Letters, Bellingham Review, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Chautauqua, Southern Humanities Review, and THRUSH. Peterson’s research, writing, and community interests center on issues of human rights, displacement and migration, and motherhood. She teaches writing at Penn State University.

Artist Roger Camp is the author of three photography books including the award winning Butterflies in Flight, Thames & Hudson, 2002 and Heat, Charta, Milano, 2008. His work has appeared in numerous journals including The New England Review, Witness and the New York Quarterly. Represented by the Robin Rice Gallery, NYC, more of his work may be seen on Luminous-Lint.com.