by Patricia Russo
Don't Tell the Landlord
The boards of the deck
have widened enough
at the far left end
to let me slip a tea biscuit through
every once in a while
to the field mice
foraging underneath
There Can Be Comfort in Routine
Today’s ghost, hunched and scrawny
taps me on the shoulder
leans over to whisper,
Yesterday was better,
and always will be.
Wearily, she sinks into a chair.
I pour her a cup of tea
Unleaf
It is only a dead leaf
a dried, triangular curl
latticed by insects
until
in a windless moment
it moves.
****
Patricia Russo's work has appeared in One Art, Heimat, Zin Daily, Wild Greens, Eulogy Press, and Crow and Cross Keys.