--MAYBE WE COULD TRY A LITTLE HARDER

…I had some good news yesterday.  My poem, “One” was one of six poems Sundress Press nominated for their annual Best of the Net Anthology.

Here it is:

One

The winds are laced with blades,

arctic air thick blankets,

bruised blue even at night,

but us,

well, we sit at a round table

in a warm building smelling of nutmeg lattes,

loud voices tearing dust off the rafters,

our laughter rattling newsprint

and backpacks.

Through the window outside

I catch a glimpse of a woman wearing a tattered blanket,

hunkered over the steaming heat grate,

her thighs splayed as if giving birth

sending her fetus straight to hell,

saving it from her hell.

Behind, a shopping cart holds

the woman’s house

her rooms

her ceiling

her carport

her bookshelves and bed.

Something like a lottery ticket

is taped to a cardboard sign saying

I AM The oNe

and then unreadable scribble.

As it starts to snow,

two suits and a pair of lovers pass by,

giving the woman wide berth,

winter air smoking from their nostrils

and teeth.

I watch the couple kiss.

I watch a hydraulic Santa pick up a package in the store front window.

I watch the ragged woman start to tell herself

a story,

praying that she gives it a happy ending.