Notes From Ohio

Steam rises off the coffee

and an angel peers in the window

to see what I’m reading.

An owl shuffles along a branch

and a dog on three legs sniffs the air.

A stonemason makes tombstones

and a nurse studies the human heart.

The dog watches for the angel

with her bad foot to her ear.

The city sleeps
on a rush of wing.

A daughter's porch is a calm oasis

of mint and spider plants, peppers and basil.

Little pots of sweet peas awaiting

germination line the sills.
She moves them around to follow the sun.

Grandmother had sweet peas around the well pit

strung up with twine to support their wandering way.

A weather-worn board we knew to avoid covered the pit.

We poked around the flowers and played in the dirt.

They’ve all left.

We’re someplace else

and await the sprouting of two green wings
from pots of dirt



Linked to the Tuesday Platform, why do we travel? And Poets United everybody has a heartache.

Happy 4th of July to those of you here, in the States.

The Slippery Elm

I have a poem published in the 2019 Slippery Elm Literary Journal.  Sorry for tooting my own horn but it's such a handsome little book with a glossy cover containing stories, short essays and poems for a lazy summer evening, prose and poems I promise will stay with you into the night, and I thought a little self-promotion was warranted. And it's so easy to buy a copy.

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