Tricia Knoll

THE RUSTED GATE RASP

The doctor's Latin name
for what clamps its fingers
around my vocal chords
isn't my name for it.

That hasp on the ill-hung gate
to keep the deer from the frilly lettuce,
the gate below the prayer flags --
sticks in a push. I hear it.

Tricia Knoll is a Portland, Oregon poet, retired from communication work which included some radio work. She now has a craggy, unreliable voice from spasmodic dysphonia. She starts poetry readings with one sentence about her voice disability — and pushes the poems out as best she can. Recent publications include Literary Mama, Windfall, Flycatcher, Verseweaver , haiku publications, and inclusion in two poetry anthologies. She contributes to New Verse News frequently.