Climbing

Abstract

Climbing Claudia Serea (bio) Climbing Each year, my parentsgrow smaller,summer to summer. They lighten up,climbing into old agelike into a tree, shedding their shoes, coats, hats,shirts, socks, pocket change—mom's purse,dad's wristwatch,their wedding rings. I wonder if they transfertheir weight onto me,if I get heavieryear to year, if my words or my dreamsget more dense,and I carry them slower,like rocks,or leadin my pockets. My parents get lighterand lighter, [End Page 100] like birds,or balloons, risinginto the old age tree until I can't see them any longer, but I know they are still there,climbing,hidden from viewamong the tall branches. [End Page 101] Claudia Serea Claudia Serea's poems and translations have been published in Field, New Letters, Mahalat Review, Oxford Poetry, Asymptote, Gravel, and elsewhere. She is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Twoxism, a collaboration with photographer Maria Haro (8th House Publishing, 2018) and Nothing Important Happened Today (Broadstone Books, 2016). Serea's poem My Father's Quiet Friends in Prison, 1958–1962 received the 2013 New Letters Readers Award. She won the Levure Littéraire 2014 Award for Poetry Performance and the 2006 New Women's Voices competition. Serea cofounded and edits National Translation Month, and she cohosts the Williams Poetry Readings in Rutherford, New Jersey. Copyright © 2020 University of Nebraska Press