North Carolina

The night after my arrival in North Carolina I went up to bed covered in red, yellow, green, and purple stars.  A tiny red heart was pasted on my cheek.  Gabriella placed them there as rewards, and they are valued  emblems.  When I take off my sweater I am careful not to dislodge them.  I… Continue reading North Carolina

IN THE DARK

Pre-dawn dark, silence. Nothing to still my clawing Thoughts in this empty House.   Cold stones echo As I descend the winding Staircase.   My dog, asleep on her chair Hears me through her dreams, Wags her tail, Knows me.    Knows me.   She stretches, comes to put Her damp nose against My hand.… Continue reading IN THE DARK

EARLY BLOOMS

A hot house it was, too small For the four of us, who bloomed too early In pots too small, were overfed, Flowering quickly, before it was too late.   We struggled to blossom prettily To become the right color and shape Exude the most pleasing fragrance   It seems, though, that in the hot,… Continue reading EARLY BLOOMS

PRESENT TENSE

My future was before me, interminable I had the time, I thought, to get it right.   Time to become the woman I want to be, So nobody ever again could throw away My secret treasures, or move them So I have to ask where they are. Over and over I tell myself, This time,… Continue reading PRESENT TENSE

JUNE NIGHT, FRANCE

June 19, 1995   Frogs by the hundreds belch lust Into the June night. Their croaking drowns My thoughts so that   I am only muscle and bone Holding soft insides: Lungs, kidneys, liver, guts, Shiny parts working together To keep my heart beating.   I watch this moist And glistening bag of organs Moving… Continue reading JUNE NIGHT, FRANCE

DREAM CANOEING

  We glide silently across still water, like Venetian lovers. My oarsman’s deep strokes scarcely disturb The black water, though I peer, anxious, Over the side of this unstable craft.   We enter a narrow lock Crowded with oblivious ships , This absurd vessel tipping With the slightest shift;   I hold my breath to… Continue reading DREAM CANOEING

BLACKBERRIES FOR AMELIA

Fringing the woods, the stone walls, and the lanes,Old thickets everywhere have come alive.Their new leaves reaching out in fans of fiveFrom tangles overarched by this year’s canes. They have their flowers too, it being June,And here or there in brambled dark-and-lightAre small, five-petaled blooms of chalky white,As random-clustered and as loosely strewn As the… Continue reading BLACKBERRIES FOR AMELIA

Westward Bound

The day after tomorrow at this time I’ll be in the air on my way to the land of my birth.  It will have been close to 10 months since I have been back. I had to forego the December-January trip because my Achilles tendon let me down, so to speak, and so I haven’t… Continue reading Westward Bound

Dinner Party

We had our first one hundred-percent Shere-ite dinner party on Saturday.  Eight people were invited, and all of them said yes. They even seemed pleased to be asked.   My first friend here, the thin dog-walker, arrived, looking elegant in wide black trousers and a full-sleeved wrap around blouse, accompanied by my soon-to-be painting pal, the … Continue reading Dinner Party

BREATHING OUT – AUTUMN

I sense the season shift, Though outwardly, nothing much is changed. The air continues warm.  In the afternoon, It will be hot again. Only an edge of coolness lingers In early morning.  In the eveningLight mellows, shadows lengthen andDeepen.  The sky is a paler blue. Mostly, though, it is the hush,As if all nature has… Continue reading BREATHING OUT – AUTUMN