Claudia K. Grinnell

These Days         "I don't have to be beautiful,         just clean."  -Erin R I am not able to leave my house anymore. The keys have gotten too big for the lock, the car won't start, the iron is always on. It appears I can't fly anymore either, can't rise, can't fall.  There are many birds that never leave earth, that merely hop and stalk through waist high grass up to my door and knock. Beside me, the man with the knife-- I won't let them enter. My kitchen hums with excited pots, salt drips from my eyes into the green onion, pepper drowns in red tomato blood. One bird flies off.  The man with the knife brings it back to me. The water boils. A time will come when I need those feathers.

Copyright © 1999 Claudia K. Grinnell All Rights Reserved