Royal Quiet Deluxe
       

With each smack and thwip I’m back with the noisy cousins
in the blueberry field’s hot heavy sun next to the two
small shacks where writing’s going on.

Fathers at work. Flies buzzing torn screens, clacking industry,
punctuated silences. Papers strewn, blotters
blotted, scrunched-up brows.

In the cabin kitchen blousey-aproned women fuss
at the pump. Kerosene stove. Citronella and seaweed
on a naptime wind, shhhh….

Matching finger’s print to cold metal, then sweep
across, conducting timpani then triangle. Each carriage
returns me to the unfinished story.

(c) Karen McPherson
Skein of Light
Airlie Press, 2014