Awaiting Arrival
After all these years of nothing coming
down the road, she still preserves lemons,
still salts fish and leaves the door unlocked
to the winter traveler. In the pantry
among the Ryvita rye and sesame crackers,
there are rooted things in abundance:
the fat pearl of Walla Walla sweet onions,
the folded wings of garlic, each shrouded
in tissue paper. She, like all her neighbors,
keeps the freezer stocked with zucchini bread
and coffee in case of the improbable arrival
of snow or the advent of a stranger, each visitation
anticipated like a bridegroom a long time coming.
—Anne M. Doe Overstreet, from Delicate Machinery Suspended
T.S. Poetry Press, 2011
