"... A week later the knock ..."

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Penny recommends these on line literary sites.

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Contact
Penny L. Ferguson

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Window Shoppers

Like unfinished threads
they hang
from the fading fabric
of her life.
She wants them secure
before AIDS claims her.

Two little girls
soon to be orphaned
and so many eager couples
needing the adornment of children
in their lives.

Who will give them
that fiber of their being,
of their very souls,
only a parent can give?

Will it be these two?
Or these?

After an endless march
of eager faces seeking ownership,
the selection is made
and she parts with
the last of her will to live.

A week later the knock.

Like a dress purchased on impulse
that pinches at the waist,
that is unbecoming to the wearer,
and now clearer thinking prevails,
her girls are returned.

Calling up the will to go further,
her wasted finger drags
from number to number
summoning the next pair
of window shoppers.





Tire Swing in January

In January gales
the tire swing sways and pirouettes
like a bloated ballerina.
The tree from which it hangs
rakes bared branches
toward bleak heavens
as if pleading for warmth.

Lifted on the wind
the swing extends toward
the children in the house,
gliding above frost-burnt grass
poking through snow--
grass whose roots
hold the memory of green.

In the desolation of winter
the swing lifts and sways again
beckoning to spring.