Marilyn Bushman-Carlton
Marilyn Bushman-Carlton is the author of three poetry anthologies: on keeping things small, Cheat Grass, and Her Side of It. She was the Utah State Poetry Society Poet of the Year in 1995 and received the 2010 Award for Poetry from the Association of Mormon Letters. She has contributed to several anthologies, including Discoveries: Two Centuries of Poems by Mormon Women and To Rejoice As Women: Talks from the 1994 Women’s Conference. Her work has been featured in BYU Studies, Comstock Review, Dialogue: a Journal of Mormon Thought, Earth’s Daughters, Ellipsis, Exponent II, Iris, and the Wasatch Journal.
Woman Bathing | Authority
Articles/Essays – Volume 25, No. 3
She performs the persistent ritual of cleansing,
the splashing of water
upon her scarlet apple flesh
sullied with blood
The Pulpit
Articles/Essays – Volume 25, No. 4
It is a last bastion,
The pulpit. Prominent
Among muscular box shapes;
Fenced off and jutting skyward
Bathing a Child
Articles/Essays – Volume 27, No. 4
Elbow-deep in shallow water
with porcelain pressed against my breast
I dragged the sudsy washcloth
over your squirming body
Straight Up
Articles/Essays – Volume 31, No. 3
Shirley is the punch line who holds the joke
while we wait like pieces on a game board
in the line that wanders
from the classrooms, through the halls,
Ordinary Light
Articles/Essays – Volume 31, No. 3
One hour of a particular day,
like a sudden flu it descends upon you
the first time.
You could not have known.
Plain and Simple
Articles/Essays – Volume 32, No. 2
It could have been an impossible day.
And then the wind
helping the Gardener’s Eden keep its promise:
the outdoor ornaments
Naked
Articles/Essays – Volume 32, No. 3
They’d come from practice at the gym,
their hair steaming,
and in the flirt and banter
would reach inside my girlfriend’s car
The Basic Tune of the Sparrow
Articles/Essays – Volume 32, No. 4
Outside the glass that keeps us warm,
the sparrows,
most common of creatures,
of whom the promise is made
Love is a Delicate Chain
Articles/Essays – Volume 34, No. 3
Here, the heavy brown ones from your father’s coat,
there the ladybugs from Jari’s first grade dress,
and from your birthday shirt, five urgent reds.
You, sorting the buttons while I sewed.
In the Kitchen on a Saturday Morning
Articles/Essays – Volume 35, No. 1
Three men
in a circumference of scant sentences,
slow dull sounds
trade expertise,
I Add Craig to My Prayers
Articles/Essays – Volume 36, No. 1
All bones, nose, and trouble.
It hasn’t been a year
since he burned the tool shed down
then crouched, crying, at the back
of the garden while firemen watered
the high whipping flames.
Now and at the Hour of Our Death
Articles/Essays – Volume 36, No. 2
Luis strained his ears, watching bare jacaranda branches twitch in silhouette against the bedroom wall. The bedroom window was sliding up. It was not a dream. A human shadow was nearly indivisible from the web…
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