Therese Broderick

Deep Linking: An Etymology*

Now it means: what he's not supposed to do,
Almost a crime, at the least a breach
Of cyber netiquette - to bypass
The intro, link directly
To her internal
Sites.

Once upon a time it meant-
To fall in
Love

*inspired by a poem title by August Kleinzahler


Recruits Needed To Sift Stardust*

Who better for the job
than this little child
playing alone in the sand-

my daughter who dreams
about having dreams,
who knows when angels fly
too low, who breathes
through her belly button,
who writes from one to three
in original cursive numbers,
who makes friends with lonely
worms, who wants her teeth
to have grandmothers, who sees
more things invisible
than real?

Who better for the job
than this Little Princess
only recently come
from stardust?

*title from a BBC news headline (Jan. 2006)

When I Am Asked
-after lines in Lisel Mueller's poem

When I am asked how I
began writing poems,
I talk about the sound of Mineola
on Long Island,
my grandmother McLinehan's town
alongside the railroad tracks.
I talk about the smell
of cedar filling the narrow stairwell
leading to her attic
where visitors slept-
sons and daughters and grandchildren
dreaming all night
of Island trains through Irish rafters.
And I talk about waking
to bacon with tea,
to the green kettle's whistle,
to the grease
and to Grace recited
around a linen tablecloth
trailing in lace its grand unpronounceable
monogram.


About the Author

Therese Broderick is a poet, wife, mother, and humanist who has lived most of her 46 years in the greater Albany, NY area. She is retired from an 18-year professional career and back in graduate school pursuing her MFA-poetry degree. She has devoted years to poetry in various volunteer community roles - workshop critique leader, teacher of seniors and the disabled, small magazine editor, open mic hostess, trained poetry coach, school classroom guest. Her poetry has won a few awards and has been accepted for publication by "Spoon River Poetry Review." She currently serves as Secretary/Treasurer of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild (www.hvwg.org).

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