KNOT Magazine
Fall Issue 2022
Martie Odell-Ingebretsen
The Intimacy of Waiting
Intimate skin
I’ve touched it yes
felt the fold and firm
not thought of loss no not yet
it’s too early for that burn
Even though I know that suddenly
is what is counted rare
it has spent time in my tear ducts
and it has brought despair
I am looking for my courage
so my face holds him with peace
but I’ve lost my hold on positive
and I want to scream release
Listen how the music of the birds
is just the same
and the countless aching shadows
still fall quietly in blame
for the sun so slowly moving
across the sky I feel its pull
and the restless cricket sounding
in my heart I feel this purr
that would cancel this already known
or let me see the light
so that I don’t need wait longer
for the words night after night
But time has no forgiveness
nor does empathy allow
any other option covered
in a live forever gown
so I catch the special moment
and I covet the heartbeat
and do the only thing I know
I wait here patiently
Water Down
Tear up the sky baby
pour the water down
the sound is falling
hear its feet trace my map
into the slide of mud
wrapped in hard down rock
oh rock me with the music
of your liquid breath
dimple darling the street
with rivers filling up into the dark
delivery comes from your potent mouth
as it crumbles the blush of dusk
with stakes that jam the horizon
down into the cinnabar crack of tomorrow
Don’t whisper it’s too late
and I have yearned for sound of tin drums
to make music like your hands in my mind
feed me baby with you patter I’m starved
and rocking in a boat made of splinters
‘til I drown
Tangled
The air-tangled hair of me takes flight
wanting to leave you there on the bench
looking across the tree lined street
with your earnest eyes
I am afraid of the rip in this city
where the glass eyes have watched
time crack the sidewalk even as the rose blooms
slowly for years now
the spider has taken over the corner
where the twilight lingers at five
Calm me back with the sweet of you
your hand the current
its direction a suave for my errant flutter
I want to be strong rope for you to hold
but I fly
and I am afraid of the tear in this gown
that I have worn called oh what
what is it called
it is turning into wing even as I
hold it down with gold rings of intention
and all the pretty pieces are flying all around
and I can't catch them with my love
can't catch them
so you must
Martie Odell-Ingebretsen was born in Pasadena, California. She fell in love with books at an early age and continues that love of reading. She received her AA
degree at Pasadena City College and attended the University of California at Berkeley and several California State College campuses where she majored in English Literature and Creative Writing. She is a child-development specialist and taught young children for over thirty years. Martie has taken many classes in creative writing, poetry and fiction throughout her life. Her Novella, Sweet William was published in 2013. She has also written a number of short stories, and over two thousand poems. She is happy to report that many have been published. In 2014 one of her poems has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She finds poetry to be a way to express her deepest feelings. She is a keen observer and finds imagery in all things, and in so doing appreciates the beauty and learns from the wisdom that surrounds her. Martie lives in Sacramento.