Have you submitted your poem on the theme of “pockets” to the Rod Carlos Rodriguez poetry contest? Deadline Aug. 1. Here’s a sample “pocket” poem for your consideration.

little mercies

~d. ellis phelps

a pocket lined with wool
for a cold cold hand

a pocket full of change
for the hungry traveler

a pocket turned inside out:
empty of judgement
empty of blame

a swaddle – a newborn pocketed

a pocket full of seed
slung to the sparrows

a secret pocket for a passport
—for a key

this pocket of rain
pouring pouring

the pocketbook my mother carried
—a piece of doublemint gum saved
there for me

a manilla pocket stuck
to the inside front cover
of a book checked out
from the library dates due
scribbled in the librarian’s hand:

a portal to another world

the impressions made
at the end of my great-grandmother’s
nose by the spectacles that sat there

—pockets of wisdom

a doctor’s pocket the tongue
depressor there the saying of
ahhhhhhh the balm to come

the pocket of humid cool
hovering over the lake

a love note stuck
in a lunchbox pocket

a poem composed:
full of little mercies

each line — a pocket
full and overflowing

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