//from “Lemon Soap”     (published in The April Reader, February 2012)

…There had been two major snow storms that year. Both on Saturdays, a week apart.  Each bringing over two feet of snow. He helped her shovel. Helped her and her husband.  Digging out the cars of neighbors, pushing those that slipped along the packed down mess.  There was camaraderie, red cheeks, and dripping noses.  Afterwards, about ten of them walked to the Abbaye.  He had a whiskey. The others drank beer. A game show played on the one television.  ESPN on the other.  There was a fire-place. He told her a story about his once being concussed after walking into a billboard and she had laughed hard.  And that is all he had wanted.
(read the rest at: http://theaprilreader.org/february2012.html)

//”Blue Light/White Light”    (published in the Kudzo Review,  Winter Solstice, 2011.)

Three jays appeared in my yard this spring
though one was feathered white,
her dark eye brilliant against the sun
her necklace black and wide.

What odds occurred to mark her so?
What chromosomal art?
Three jays appeared in the yard this year.
The smallest one was white.

A jay’s feather pales when it is crushed.
(The structure pressed, it can’t refract).
No chance had play then after all,
But simply violence and light.

Three jays appeared in the yard this year
The small one feathered white.
She darted once at a neighbor’s cat
then rose and pierced my heart.

find more at:  http://kudzureview.com/index.html