Rough Spots
A morning that doesn’t begin well. The anxiety clouding a husband’s poor health. Waiting for doctors’ visits. Waiting on test results. The slam of a bedroom door.
just enough
this patch of blue
beyond the pine bough
Country Auction
Stifling August heat in an auction barn. Sweat rivulets down the small of my back. Waiting for the auction, I read newspaper that lines a dresser drawer; the small crimes of a small town don’t change, only the names.
Shrewd buyers are up from Paducah to bid on a trunk of old quilts. They spread the quilts in harsh sunlight looking for rips, repairs and the faint, yellow stains of sweat and urine; semen and tears.
where we made love—
crushed primrose
bent grass