Katherine L. Holmes
bio

Handed-down

Insomnia
June sun in fjords
incurable as
his mother’s sleeplessness
I was spared
a glacier’s skyblue landslide
alone on tour
with musicians unmerging as notes
when I went
to Norway he knew it was over
he said years later
wistful waterfalls churned guilt
in my camera
the dark blue-eyed girl
Scandinavian-sad
had to parade in a program
the day I found
the bleeding hearts bush
in a cemetery
every lovelorn summer then
in the shade
with ferns and lillies-of-the-valley
our back garden
a grotto like the gravestone
of gloating secrecy
he was a dreamboat the Americans said
the Army Band musician
escorting me while Norwegians might
having knowingly
winced at such a handed-down break-off.