MARIANNE BREMS - POEMS

Marianne Brems is a long time writer of textbooks, but also loves to write whimsical poems. She has an MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in several literary journals including The Pangolin Review, Armarolla, Foliate Oak, La Scrittrice, The Sunlight Press, and The Tiny Seed Literary Journal. She lives in Northern California.

We Can’t Replant
​

Were the loss a favorite book 
with a spine cracked 
so yellowed pages lose their grip, 
or a beloved sweater pilled 
from tender friction 
against the perimeters of things,
we could stay fastened to roots,
deep, 
but not so deep 
we can’t replant.

While spread within the borders 
of books and sweaters,
a broader resonance beckons 
where blood and breath 
and winsome ways
take hold our fictile hearts.

Brimming love
these captured hearts 
endorse a higher calling
where love persists 
as the loved perishes
and roots detach
beneath the weight of emptiness.
Here we can’t replant.


​

Supercharging
​

Vehicles in a perfect row like soldiers in a march
in front of nineteen identical miniature towers  
planted in a landscaped strip of brick chips,
noses toward Chipotle and Starbucks, 
as conception at 72kW travels through a cable 
in an office park for worker bees 
where electricity hums softly
like a team of bustling insects
as thirsting sedans draw restorative energy.DMV, Stems, Replant

Drivers, suspended from conversation, 
caught for half an hour 
between hurry up and what if
stare at small screens to scramble 
then unscramble 
remaining obligations of the day.
Or they abandon personal sanctuaries
behind windshields
for necessities or indulgences 
at Pet Smart or Jamba Juice.

A productive model 
created in a remote office 
means pairs of eyes need never meet
and voices never mingle.

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