Green Tent



Erect, the green tent is a gable,

the attic of the earth.

We enter on hands and knees,

by means of a long zipper

delicately undone.

Inside we're still outside,

still vulnerable

to a leaning pine or a bear

rummaging through the pantry.

The walls are green drapes;

they're a green balloon

we filled by sighing.

It's home, though, a studio apartment

you invited me to

where the only place to sit

is the bed.

conniewanek.com - 2008/07/10

Welcome to the new conniewanek.com

Connie Wanek has been writing poems since childhood. She is the author of two books, with a third forthcoming, and she has been the recipient of several awards, including the Willow Poetry Prize and the Jane Kenyon Poetry Prize. Most recently, she was named a Witter Bynner Fellow of the Library of Congress by United States Poet Laureate Ted Kooser. She lives in the country outside Duluth, Minnesota, but often finds herself in a green tent somewhere in the Boundary Waters wilderness.