After I became like you, hand
searching along the stair rail
for anything secure,
I moved the fern pot.
Took it from its place
on the landing,
in the path of questioning feet,
put it someplace else.
Now I've forgotten to water it.
I've learned that fronds shrivel
when care is withdrawn,
attention marshalled on moving up,
feeling out one step at a time,
climbing in blind obedience
to that disappearing place.
Carol Brockfield crayoned poems on her kindergarten paper. More recently she was a member of the Napa Poets Collective in Napa, California, which included her poems in two poetry anthologies, Poets of the Valley and Harvest. Napa Valley College issued a chapbook of her work as winner of the first annual Jessamyn West Creative Writing Award. She now lives in Southern Oregon, where she won First Place in the 2008 Rogue Valley Poetry Contest. As head of the Rogue Valley Chapter of the Oregon State Poetry Association, Carol organizes public readings and promotes poetry wherever, whenever.