Two Poems

The Heart and the Soul

Warring for my peace. The boxberry hill I choose to die on. This one. For a quarter decade I’ve seeked a sweetness like the taste of the watermelon Nadia and I shared in the sands when we were 5.

Very sweet. But she’s dead and so I remember …

A city where there will be someone like her.
A kind of sweetness that changes everything.
I mean,
That stills everything.

HERSOUL is anointed with oil.

I, standing and drawn near, get a whiff kin to the heart’s perfume. Her arms embrace herself and all God’s holy things walk with her, surrounding her camp.
Great Outdoors. Green clovers, green plovers.

Say less. The softspoken are blessed.
Slow to speak and slow to anger.
Let the living flame of love always
Be at my center.


Poem Written on the Steps of the Holy Virgin Protection Russian Cathedral 5/16/26

Draining a mountain: A pipe.
When the Spanish came to Mexico City.
It’s a sin to forget God wants you to be happy.
Writing something down. Virgin kept.
Curly girl with her skin light brown.
Laughing to her friend but at me.
He told me I could move mountains. I said,
“What about this city?”


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Thomas Thatcher lives in Massachusetts and is a member of The Downsville School.