Two poems by Kit Andis
Unsplash image by Sonia Remizua @remizua
Kit Andis, author of Halfway House on recovery and poetry
Powerless
—for Cathy
Day before yesterday, rain coming down
you are out on a call
skies turn green, trees
whip back & forth
skies darken & you come in drenched below your knees
wading around
trees down, blocking our street
then transformers blow nearby
fiery balls rise in darkness
& you say it, winking, “Powerless”
but you are sick, sore throat
shivering with fever
I can barely get you up from sofa
& to bed, quaking
—I can do nothing more
& lie beside you in the dark
fearful
Friday up early
as dawn begins to light
the house, room by room
2 pines lie in the street still, but rain
has stopped
chatter on social media on our phones
NO COFFEE!!!
neighbors bitch about trees blocking us all in
11,000 people waiting for power to
be restored & you are in & out
of sleep
I go out for breakfast & coffee
later you awaken looking
grey, sore throat, you don’t wanna eat
we read, son comes home with friends
they don’t care about power
show no fear of failure
& decrepitude
they are happy, playing
with their car
neighbors cut a path thru trees
I go out for Chinese
you start picking up storm debris
in back yard, then you
are mowing while I read murder mystery
sweat pouring off you, your
fever broken
lights blink on in the house
later, lying next to you, you say
“Still powerless,” or something like that,
kidding, & I think, not true, & know
you know it, too
because there is us
it’s our little joke
true & not true
—5/18/19
Poem
A new dawn
about to break
I sit in a large house
by a lake
smell of fresh coffee
percolates
a new year
almost here
now
I hear
her sleeping sounds
in the other room
the smell of us
in the air there
oldest story:
new love
how sweet
to be alive
—12/29/2017
Kit Andis was born in 1951. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1969 through 1971. Andis has taught writing at colleges, mental hospitals, and in private tutoring. His work has been published in magazines and newspapers around the US. He has two published novels, BOOKSTORE and THE SUMMER HO CHI MINH DIED, and three chapbooks of poetry, LOCATIONS, HEARTS MAKE FISTS and LIKE PARADISE ONLY DIFFERENT. A new book-length collection of poems DAYS FOR AN OCCASION was released in 2016. His inspirational recovery narrative HALFWAY HOUSE: A STORY was published under the pen name J. Durbin in 2014. A second edition was released in 2022 under his own name.
