Ibe Liebenberg
Summer 2023 | Poetry
Two Poems
Half Staff
these flowers underneath
winter orphans
still buried lilies we gather
about why you did it
flag and pole coupled close
we say we cannot
understand
Feather River Canyon
almost threw my rope to water
pretending to be the child
a small shirt waving sleeves
was too much body
i am lonely on the shore
waiting hours in rain
the boy shirtless wherever he is
will return
while the river gossips
then argues with me
a burial as if agreeing
the high water mark sign nods
above our engines
at the station in my room
i slip into the water
resurrect the hours
before his family drove
from the road
hours before
their recovery
Ibe Liebenberg is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. He lives in Chico, California and works as a firefighter, and a lecturer at Chico State University. He is currently enrolled in the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He has been published in POETRY Magazine, The ThreePenny Review, Ecotone, North American Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Sugar House Review, American Journal of Poetry, Salamander Magazine, and Verse Daily.