Where I Live by Maxine Kumin

Is vertical:

Garden, pond, uphill

Pasture, run-in shed.

Through pines, Pumpkin Ridge. 

Two switchbacks down

Church spire, spit of town.

Where I climb I inspect

The peas, cadets erect

In lime-capped rows,

Hear hammer blows

As pileateds peck

The rot of shagbark hickories

Enlarging last 

Year's pterodactyl nests.

Granite erratics 

Humped like bears

Dot the outermost pasture

Where in tall grass 

Clots of ovoid scat 

Butternut-size, milky brown

Announce our halfgrown

Moose padded past

Into the forest

To nibble beech tree sprouts.

Wake-robin trillium

In dapple-shade. Violets,

Landlocked seas I swim in.

I used to pick bouquets

For her, framed them                            

With leaves. Schmutzige

She said, holding me close

To scrub my streaky face. 

Almost from here I touch 

My mother's death.

The poem first starts by describing the imagery of Maxine's home, but she soon begins to tie the images in with her memories. She remembers her mother saying "smutzige" which means "dirty hands" in German. She remembers her mother taking care of her, and she thinks of her mother when she thinks of her old home. The rich imagery allows the reader to see exactly what she sees, and when she pictures it so vividly she feels her mother so close that she can "touch her mother's death".