years of dust now available from Foothills Press

In this beautifully lyrical volume Swartzfager explores the emotions of childhood, while staying true to a clear poetic truth and never devolving to sentimentality.  With clean crisp lines, she draws memorable images that resonate with the reader:

Airline Park

mothers let us go

     warn us home before dark

 

we ride our bikes down the street

     as far as Schwinn can carry us

     Tommy, LJ, Donna, and me

    

driveways stick their tongues out

     from the elderly ranches

     lap up the dusk

 

one light then another

     pots awake on front porches

 

we close our eyes

     ride without hands

    faster than the lights 

    to darker blocks aroudn teh corner

    where the lights can't catch us