2004/cold

Cold morning.
Furnace drones,
cat waits at the door
to go back out.
Last night the plants
got frost bitten
I’m sure.
I forgot them
until now.
For weeks I wrapped
them in white
sheets at night.
Old sheets with
tattered edges.
In the morning
spreading the wet
sheets on the lawn
chairs to dry.
The weather warmed,
and somewhere along
the way I got over-
whelmed with
pin-pricked copper
pipes spraying water
beneath the house
and the leaking
toilet,
and painful things that
happen to children
and grandchildren
that families can’t
talk about.
I forgot to cover
the plants.
We all got burned
around the edges.

12/23/04