on the roof
I don’t panic
I drink rainwater
like a sponge
here on the north
facing slope no
sunlight disturbs me
tree branches shade me
small birds gather my body parts
why? I don’t know
but it tickles
and they seldom take
all, there remains
enough for bugs to cozy into
while the rain drenches
I need no roots
no sun
ok a little sun
because when the wind
shakes these shingles
I am lonely
and the memory
of a happy sun
gets me though
the night
-Poem by Susan April
SUSAN APRIL lives in Myersville, Maryland. She is an Environmental Scientist in practice in the Greater Washington DC area. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College and technical degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Poems and essays have been widely published, including by Loom Press (Lowell) and forthcoming in Writings on Domestic Verbal and Physical Abuse, by McFarland & Company. As an activist, she works with communities to fight the aggressive tactics of pipeline companies and large industrial polluters.