Pierian Spring, spring 1980

Herewith, the latest selection from dusted-off published poetry and short fiction, circa 1970s vintage and beyond....

A More Tolerant Vision

When she was young
and in good health
she shrank from worms
while digging in her garden.

Now age has gifted her
a more tolerant vision.
Daily she drops drugs to
keep Glaucoma at bay.
Her pupils pinprick
she looks like an aged junkie.

She still likes the sun
warming her back
though it's harder to rise,
and worms no longer upset her.

She has discovered
snakes between the bricks
of her house; they like
the feel of the sun,
wrap themselves possessively
around bushes in her garden.

Once while trimming an
ornamental shrub she
snipped a red-bellied snake
in half. She sat down and cried.

c. 1980
published in Pierian Spring, Volume 5, Number 2