Page 21 - WTPO Vol. VII #5

ometimes
it doesn’t matter
orning, its course having overtaken
tacking darkness, is lightened suddenly something small and graceful, a lagniappe
n overgrown lawn—herbertia.
oesn’t matter, the pleasure of espial, taking home, identification—
are swallowed in the next moment
you watch your plumber plunge his arm
he way to shoulder blade into a plugged overflow ving with homegrown ejecta.
oesn’t matter that soft purple petals open out
m their petiole,
ch lifts from a delicate liqueur glass righten your dust-blown room.
ife is maintenance, someone said—
light and lovely always cudgeled what’s gone flat—tires and cushions ray—your son, the cat
eed or pot—your garden, your body.
d sometimes it doesn’t matter
he herbertia folds down into a grub,
ht clubbing its way over your best hour, s you kneel to scoop your orts and rinds k into the trash bag—raccoon-raided—
have the presence of eye to notice arti-colored suite of irises
ng from the grassy strip along your cracking driveway.
Shah holds an MA, MFA, and PhD in English literature/creative writing and has received grants from the University of Houston and the Houston Arts Alliance. She is a founding member of Voices Breaking Boundaries, a Houston literary arts organization, and she has published poems in journals and anthologies such as Tar River Poetry, The Texas Review, Anon (Britain), Rhino, and Vine Leaves Literary Journal (Australia). Her poetry chapbook, Small Fry (Finishing Line Press), was published in 2017. A full-length poetry book, What to Do with Red (LitFest Press), was published in 2018. She is a recent winner of Literal Latté’s Food Verse Contest, and has poems forthcoming in other journals.
14