Susan Niz: We Make Our Bed To Lie In
Photo: Joanna C. Valente
4/11 We Make Our Bed To Lie In
The flowerbed the size of a
Spring grave
Emptied of clay
Filled with the most beautiful
Fine, black soil
Wildflower and lavender seeds
Tiny dry dots of somethingness
After the work of digging
The trench, seeds in soil
A small hand to play
In a miracle
We could be near the end—
I request new life
Seeds when they burst open
After the peak of the pandemic
Will make a bed of flowers
Pointing their index fingers
To the May sun at a range of heights
Like a graph of new cases
Susan Niz has two poetry chapbooks: Beyond this Amniotic Dream (Beard Poetry, 2016) and Left-Handed Like a Lightning Whelk, (Finishing Line Press, 2019). Her work has appeared in places such as Ponder Review, Blue Bonnet Review, Belleville Park Pages, Ginosko, Flashquake, Opium Magazine, and Summerset Review. Susan has taught poetry workshops at the University of Texas-Informal Classes, Austin Bat Cave, The Writing Barn, and Austin-area libraries. She has been featured in live poetry shows in Minneapolis and Austin. Susan's novel Kara, Lost (North Star Press, 2011) was a finalist for a Midwest Book Award (MIPA) for Literary Fiction. She has a BA in Creative Writing. Susan lives in the Austin, Texas area where she is raising her family.
