Angela Patten
Angela Patten was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. She is author of five poetry collections, most recently Feeding the Wild Rabbit (Kelsay Books 2024) and a prose memoir High Tea at a Low Table: Stories From An Irish Childhood (Wind Ridge Books 2013).
POETRY NEWS
The Longest-Running Show
I was taking out the garbage
when I noticed the quality of light—
a frieze of gold girdling the tops
of the trees like a fancy gilt frame
that prepares the viewer’s eye
to enter the province of the painting.
By the time I ducked inside to find
a coat, a hat, my boots and gloves,
the gold was gone. But what I saw
were bird tracks stenciled on the snow,
a red fire hydrant wearing a white hat,
impersonating a squat Saint Nicholas.
Each turn I took returned a new delight—
magenta and vermilion of the lake
surrounded by the cut-out cardboard
mountains of a theater-in-the-round.
And sunset waiting in the wings, all
tarted up with nowhere to go but down.
by Angela Patten (c) Connecticut River Review 2025
