April 3 – Marion Brown

Lorenzo judges

Welcome to National Poetry Month and Gyroscope Review’s month-long celebration of poets – and their diverse Writing Assistants. Enjoy the audio/video works by previous Gyroscope Review poets, and be sure to check out the Author and fun Writing Assistant Bio at the end of each NPM poet post. Don’t forget to tag the poet on Social Media and let them know you enjoyed their work!

View to the Back by Marion Brown

View to the Back

Not a picture but a picture window
at the far end of a long living room
plush armchairs not chairs but nests 
for a clutch of eggs not eggs but
ice cream my mother let me eat
for breakfast not breakfast but bed
time when I muffled the reading 
lamp under my pillow not the pillow 
but smoke from the brown bruise 
of scorched ticking not scorched 
but faded—my silent picture living 
in the deep-green room where 
Mother sits at night to read the Times.


“View to the Back,” originally published in The Night Heron Barks. Note title change.

WRITING ASSISTANT BIO

Butter Fly currently resides on a balsam pillow in Yonkers, formerly in the Adirondack region of New York. She ornaments a desk where she also works as a wrist cushion, with a side gig perfuming the room. Her hobby is flying. She avoids carpal tunnels. As her name indicates, she is not a moth.

Butterfly

AUTHOR BIO

A Yonkers resident, Marion Brown has published the chapbooks Tasted and The Morning After Summer with Finishing Line Press. Guesthouse, Liber, Kestrel, Cider Press Review, The Night Heron Barks, and Gyroscope Review are among the publications where her poems have appeared. Formerly a Westchester County Master Gardener, she serves on the Advisory Committee of Slapering Hol Press and the National Council of Graywolf Press. Her website is marionbrownpoet.com. The Morning After Summer is available from Finishing Line Press and Amazon.

Don’t forget to read the Spring 2024 Issue of Gyroscope Review.

NPM 2024 Poets

April 1 – Cal Freeman

April 2 – Susanna Lang

April 3 – Marion Brown