She rubbed ointment across the darkening patch on her ankle, feeling the itch beneath the burn.

*

Some miniatures take months, sometimes years, to complete. One must ponder the weight and shape of what is missing, before the outline can be imagined.

*

She wrote of receiving in the mail pots of aloe, pots of African violets— propagated by friends from original plants once tended by her son before he passed away.

*

It is astonishing, how anger and hurt behave— leave in them too long the impress of your fingers and they will adorn every space in the room.

*

Honey on the tongue, bitterness in the heart. Soon the grammar of venomous bees in each ear.

In response to an entry from the Morning Porch.