Through brown bamboo shades, leaves shimmy
and bounce, foregrounded by gray roof slate.
. . .
Downstairs, the man slips in cat spittle, hollers,
mad. The cat necklace sings up the stairs.
. . .
Today’s high will reach 52 with gusty winds
already hinted at in wavering pin oak leaves.
. . .
Traffic in town is light, ten minutes to anywhere.
Some man might seem dirty and bundled walking Main.
. . .
You have house noises, air blowing, pipes banging.
Right now, just now, you forget fear and chore.
. . .
Your feet are only a little cold yet. Perhaps today,
you . . . .
. . .
Alert: Low relative humidity, warm temps: any fires
that develop will likely spread rapidly: Fire Weather Warning.
~ Laura Lee Washburn
Laura Lee Washburn is the Director of Creative Writing at Pittsburg State University in Kansas, and the author of This Good Warm Place: 10th Anniversary Expanded Edition (March Street) and Watching the Contortionists (Palanquin Chapbook Prize). Her poetry has appeared in such journals as TheNewVerse.News, Cavalier Literary Couture, Carolina Quarterly, Ninth Letter, The Sun, Red Rock Review, and Valparaiso Review. Born in Virginia Beach, Virginia, she has also lived and worked in Arizona and in Missouri. She is married to the writer Roland Sodowsky and is one of the founders and the Co-President of the Board of SEK Women Helping Women.
Guest Editor Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate and the author or editor of over 20 books. Founder of Transformative Language Arts at Goddard College, where she teaches, she also offers community writing workshops widely, and with Kelley Hunt, Brave Voice writing and singing retreats. She founded the 150 Kansas Poems site where she is thrilled to work with many fine guest editor poets and witness powerful writing from and about the heartland.
The Coop: A Poetry Cooperative 