Libby Maxey

Contrafactum

“Every house has its particular orchestra.”
—Sylvia Townsend Warner

in the woods, a bear bell’s chunnering drone
the flickers’ enfilade

in the garden, a chiming gamelan
wind wash in the leaves

inside, outside’s company
now that May is almost June

every bird singing singing into dusk
frogs roaring high chorus

our small dialogues
cadence

every day a common tune
to which we set new words

Libby Maxey is a senior editor with Literary Mama. She has reviewed poetry for Mom Egg Review and Solstice, and her own poems have appeared in Crannóg, Emrys, Pinyon, Pirene’s Fountain and elsewhere. Her first collection, Kairos, won the 2018 Finishing Line Press New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition. Her nonliterary activities include singing classical repertoire and mothering two sons.