Maxine Patroni

When I Came Back

I was a sparrow in the dark
shadow of an elm tree.

I was a leaf dropped towards
the lake, my face star-like

and swirling—no longer
fragmented, no longer a breeze

of bullets, hot and smoke-
circled. I was a woman

who saw shapes in the clouds,
who painted landscapes

with her finger. I was a green valley
where all the horses lived.

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Maxine Patroni graduated with an MFA in Poetry from New York University where she was the Teachers and Writers Fellow. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in The Literary Review, Greensboro Review, Allegheny Review and elsewhere.