READING LI PO ON A WINTER DAY

[Published in The Beatnik, March 26, 2011, on-line at http://whollycommunion.blogspot.com/]

READING LI PO ON A WINTER DAY


Sitting in the brown rocking chair
next to the window in my bedroom
waiting for the afternoon sun to stream in again,
I read Li Po.

Cold wind gusts outside,
whips round the eaves,
rattles the front door.

Outside the window, a shutter flaps against the house—
the same shutter I thought would fall off last year.

The afternoon sun streams through the window.
Some day I’ll have to fix that shutter.