Mary Oliver asks me what it is I am going to do
Kate Kobosko | Poetry, Spring 2025
with my one wild & precious life, in white
chalk, on a board centered above the dish bin.
today, I am making smoothies, taking food
orders, counting change from the till,
explaining the difference
between coconut milk & coconut water.
& tomorrow? Groceries, homework,
my turn to clean the bathroom.
today I will make it through this shift
& make something up to please Mary.
I’ll romance the details on my walk home
after I lock up: new england’s summer
hydrangeas, fragrant in the dark, salty
air that curls escaped strands of my hair
into a corkscrew. & what else would
she appreciate?
the sloping porch
of my duplex, the stillness of un-traffic
down Essex Street. surely, the killdeer
would be sleeping, although she’d relish
hearing their calls. maybe she would
like the sidewalk beneath my feet, charred
from the day’s heat, with tufts of weed
that wink at the cracks, desperate for a chance
to be considered, to be wild & precious.
__________________________________________
Why is this piece your Trace Fossil?
“There are few writers that make me feel as close to myself as I do when I read Mary Oliver. Reading her feels like connecting with my simplest, most elemental self. I hear her in my ear often as the seasons change and in bursts of gratitude. When I feel stifled, a poem is the place where I look for realignment. This particular poem is about a place where I no longer live, but it holds so many rich memories. That place, as all the other places I have lived, left a trace fossil within me that shows up in many of my poems. I love the idea that as a poet I leave trace fossils of myself, imbued with all the places and writers I've taken with me.”
Kate Kobosko is a writer and educator currently based in South Carolina. She holds an MFA from Emerson College. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in autofocus, Humana Obscura, Saltbush Review, The Crawfish, and others. Most days you can find her on the porch reading a good book beside her cat, Gator. You can find more of her work at katekobosko.com
Mary Oliver asks me what it is am I going to do
Kate Kobosko | Poetry, Spring 2025
with my one wild & precious life, in white
chalk, on a board centered above the dish bin.
today, I am making smoothies, taking food
orders, counting change from the till,
explaining the difference
between coconut milk & coconut water.
& tomorrow? Groceries, homework,
my turn to clean the bathroom.
today I will make it through this shift
& make something up to please Mary.
I’ll romance the details on my walk home
after I lock up: new england’s summer
hydrangeas, fragrant in the dark, salty
air that curls escaped strands of my hair
into a corkscrew. & what else would
she appreciate?
the sloping porch
of my duplex, the stillness of un-traffic
down Essex Street. surely, the killdeer
would be sleeping, although she’d relish
hearing their calls. maybe she would
like the sidewalk beneath my feet, charred
from the day’s heat, with tufts of weed
that wink at the cracks, desperate for a chance
to be considered, to be wild & precious.
________________________________________________________________________
Why is this piece your Trace Fossil?
“There are few writers that make me feel as close to myself as I do when I read Mary Oliver. Reading her feels like connecting with my simplest, most elemental self. I hear her in my ear often as the seasons change and in bursts of gratitude. When I feel stifled, a poem is the place where I look for realignment. This particular poem is about a place where I no longer live, but it holds so many rich memories. That place, as all the other places I have lived, left a trace fossil within me that shows up in many of my poems. I love the idea that as a poet I leave trace fossils of myself, imbued with all the places and writers I've taken with me.”
Kate Kobosko is a writer and educator currently based in South Carolina. She holds an MFA from Emerson College. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in autofocus, Humana Obscura, Saltbush Review, The Crawfish, and others. Most days you can find her on the porch reading a good book beside her cat, Gator. You can find more of her work at katekobosko.com