Poetry – Page 5 – Irene North

A picture of a picture at Ellis Island and the inspiration for my May, 1991 poem.

This poem was published in the anthology “A Sea of Treasures” in 1995. It was the first thing I had written to be published.

Ellis Island

The beds lie in
Soldier rows
ten by five
Steel frames that are
more of a home
to roaches

Paint peels off
and rust
corrodes the springs
mattresses full
of lice
and
rats
burrowing in

The beds are pushed
against walls
where paint chips
fall

No sheet
no blanket
just a pillow
to rest a
weary head

When the hour arrives

By Irene

On 21 November, 2018

In Poetry

Beach

By Irene

On 16 November, 2018

In Poetry

My mother worked for twenty-seven years at the Middletown Psychiatric Center. Most of her career was on the geriatric units. Over the years, I got to know a few of the patients. I always liked talking with Adalaide, even if she didn’t talk much. Just as I entered my teenage years, she passed away. I wrote this poem about her a decade later, sometime between 1993 and 1995.

Grandma

By Irene

On 1 November, 2018

In Gram, Poetry

The best grandma in the world.

I wrote this poem as part of my final project in my poetry class at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I turned it in on July 12, 1990. I had turned twenty-years-old seven days before. Today would have been Gram’s 96th birthday.