dread
shame
another should’ve
another shoe
my body a stiff
white page
turned
reworked
revised &
revised
every minute
spent reading
every scribble
every stare
out the window I find
a piece of dry ground cherry
out walking I like its withered
ends its bones its beaks
realize I will have to get
myself home walking
through the rain again
Wendy Vardaman, PhD, works as a web & digital media specialist. She is the author of Obstructed View (2009), Reliquary of Debt (2015), and the chapbook (with Sarah Sadie), Rules of (dis)engagement, or Dubious perFormances (2016). She served as Madison, Wisconsin poet laureate from 2012 to 2015 and volunteers as a graphic designer.
