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Gray Blankets

by Janet Buck

Gray wool blanket middle ground
is posed between winter and spring.
Birdless and dirty -- a sidewalk
stands alone, talking back as hail falls.
Tea bag clouds squeeze heavy hands.
Trash is frozen to the ditch.
Perhaps good luck will force
green stalks of daffodils
through massive stone.
Cherry trees that line
the DC thoroughfares
sit naked and drumming for pink.
Like it or not, this world will ride
the blossom to the fact of dust.
Altars will glow with candlelight
and mourners will be dressed in black.
The lines of old regrets are long.

An editor I barely know
apologizes in advance:
tissue issues will be late
for I could be called to war.
Readiness is in his voice.
Strength is a tenuous guess --
a thumbtack in the crumbled cork.
I think I hear a child's wail
behind his careful typing skills.
Perhaps he leaves a crib behind,
a wife who will stare at the phone,
hoping it doesn't ring.
She sees Quixote windmill blades
in arms he wraps around her waist.
Perhaps he sees the limp of battle
matching only strides of hate.
Prefers the verb a page could be
to plowing tanks and missiles
for a shooting star.

bio

Janet Buck is a six-time Pushcart Nominee and the author of four collections of poetry. In 2003, her work is scheduled to appear in The Montserrat Review, PoetryBay, Southern Ocean Review, Artemis, Zuzu's Petals Quarterly, and dozens of journals world-wide. Buck is a frequent contributor to Identity Theory.

Featured author in January 2001

connections

"Christmas in a Subway Car"
"The Holding Tank"
"Acrobats in Ash"
"The Tennessee Twister"
"The FBI Chaplain Stops By"
"The Shack"
"The Waiting Room"
"Megiddo Junction"
"Curbs to Climb"
"Terror's Bruise"
"The Tragic Anniversary"
"The Zeinhom Morgue"
"The Theory of Green"
"Cruel Candles in the Dark"
"The Lost & Found"
"Frozen Sonnets"
"New York, New York"
"Live on CNN"
"America Under Siege"
"Gutter Balls"
"The Paralyzed Apocalypse"
"Rushing Toward Entelechy"
"The Bag Lady"
"Caught in Lesser Tragedies"
"The Broken Promise"
"The Gargoyle"
"The Going"
"The Orphan"

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Hot Links: Janet I. Buck
Janet's Latest Interview
Desideratum's Doggie Dish
Author's Den
Active Amp.org—Features Janet I.   Buck
Poetry Magazine.Com-October-Janet Buck
The Part-time Postmodernist   (August 2000)
San Francisco Salvo
Moongate: Janet I. Buck
Offcourse
The October Country
Cafe Society: Poetry Life &   Times
Kookamonga Square
The Adirondack Review
janetbuck.com
Funky Dog Publishing—Janet   Buck's Strawberry Nipples
Athens Avenue—Janet I.   Buck
One World-One Heart   Exhibit
Ygdrasil: Issue 9 September   2000