The Burden

How the burr hurts, working its way out!
Now she demurs . . . better to leave it alone,
to bury it deep in her flesh. But always there,
always a burden, it wants to move,
tries to move up and out, to heal
but she thrusts it down,
gouging her tender inner self until
the burr is no longer felt--only the scar
tissue like a lump or knot prods her all the time,
nagging, kept and imprisoned
deep within--a sort of monument
to the small burr, preserving it forever.

Rosemary C. Anderson's publications include about 44 articles and biographies and one story (mostly in a small art magazine), and over 20 poems in publications such as Main Street Rag, Frogpond, RE:AL, Sinister Wisdom, Jewish Currents, Luna Negra, The Plaza (Japan), The Distillery, etc.

She is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara and is originally from a small town in Illinois. She works as editor of Redgreene Press (fine poetry) and also as Anderson Publishing. Formerly, she owned a small art magazine, IWAA NEWS. She is also an artist - painting, drawing, mostly (portraits, still-life, abstracts), and has some photographs published. She is a disabled veteran , renovating an old house.

Email: Rosemary C. Anderson

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