"Lotus Pool" by Billie Waters

Black-masked deer vandalize the neighborhood-
kick my pansies up, bite petal faces off.
They blink like innocents at the ogling oncoming.

In the morning I bend so low so long over the ruin,
a neighbor tries to pull me up, calling me softly
by someone else's name.

A garden will raise a stink when weeds are pulled-
the signal of terror is odor, large like noise,
like a deaf-mute's screams.

So when backyard wood parts at dusk
and branches rustle with searching, we must believe
we are no more lost than the sky, figured though it seems
with endless riddling light.

Bio: Cheryl Snell's work has appeared in dozens of journals such as Antietam Review, Petroglyph, Comstock Review, Washington Review and River Oak Review. Her novel Shiva's Arms won an honorable mention from the Dana Literary Awards and was a finalist for the Omaha Prize. Her chapbook of poetry entitled Flower Half Blown was published in 2002 by Finishing Line Press and has been nominated for the Ohioana Book Award in Poetry.

Contact Cheryl Snell at cherylsnell@hotmail.com