Alchemy
In the 1800s
the Thames River stank
so wretchedly
people ran with handkerchiefs
over faces to residence
or carriage
while in the alleys of London
the coatless children died.
The human heart filled with knowledge
and fish jumped clear. The air went pure.
In the 2020s rivers rise on fire
with stench of oil and spill.
Pelicans
tangled with plastic fishlines
no longer fly. Ducks die.
Human hearts,
fill with knowledge, please,
grow a lotus from our deepening mud.
House
Within the wall there is
a room
and in the room
there is a
chair and
on that chair
there sat a man
and in that
man there was
a home made
of woman
chair and wall
and on that wall
there is a photo and
in that photo there
smiles a man and
on the rug there
sat the chair
and in that chair
a woman came
and took the hand
of the man who in
the photo held
a woman’s hand and
to that wall they
both assembled
to stand within
a golden frame
until the day
this poem was
written so
they could
sit upon a chair
within the walls
where there was
once a rug and
where there
was a chair
with a man who
loved a woman
who loved a man
who held his hand
within a house
made of walls.
Grace Cavalieri was Maryland’s tenth Poet Laureate Her new books are: Sticks And Stars (for children, 2026;) Fables from Italy and beyond (2025;) The Third Voice (2025;) and Owning The Not So Distant World which won the Blue Light Book Award, (2024;) Her most recent play in NYC was “Quilting The Sun” about ex-slave Harriet Powers. She founded and still produces “the Poet and the Poem” for public radio, now from the Library of Congress celebrating 50 years on-air in 2027. Twenty-five years of her podcasts were sent to the moon on lunar codex 2023. Among her awards, are the CPB silver medal, the George Garrett Award, Bordighera Prize, Paterson Prize, two Allen Ginsberg Awards. Cavalieri is featured in 2025’s The Best American Poetry Anthology. She is an Academy of American Poets Fellow.