Surely, You Know

By Tricia Knoll

After Lucille Clifton’s “Surely I am able to write poems”

Surely, you know I write about treasured trees.
Then I see that leaning scraggle pine with roots 
forcing into the foundation of Home Depot. 
How much more can be said about loneliness. 
I’ve been erased from some schedule book. 
Words are my hollow-shafted playmates wielded
as knives and feathers. I’ve learned to suck 
the wind out of window. Brevity is the tool
of people birthed in large families. I never
borrow secrets; mine stuff into a black sack
that never shrinks. There’s always another
dark poem hung somewhere, another one
about an old woman staring out the second story. 

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Tricia Knoll’s poems appear widely in journals, anthologies, and seven collections. How I Learned to Be White received the 2018 Human Relations Indie Book Award for Motivational Poetry. Her most recent book is One Bent Twig (2023), which highlights trees she planted, loves, or worries about due to climate chaos. Knoll is a Contributing Editor to Verse Virtual. Website: triciaknoll.com