Jenny Ward Angyal

All in Good Time

At first, it looks like a thin wire poking out of a joint in the woodwork, but closer inspection reveals the slender tendril of a vine, complete with tiny green leaves. A gentle tug reveals two more inches of stem, blanched where it’s been hidden behind the mantelpiece. I know I should snip it off, suppress the invasion before it goes any further, before the pale, probing fingers of ivy and creeping myrtle pry apart the walls. 

But I don’t. This house was vacant for a few years before we bought it, and kestrels nested in the gutter.  Occasionally a young black snake finds its way indoors, and once a narrow-mouth toad took up residence in the cellar. Day by day I watch the vine, waiting for the leaves to unfold. 

coyotes 
yip and yammer
outside my door
the quickening pulse
of a world without us

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About the Author 

Jenny Ward Angyal’s tanka have appeared widely in journals and are published in her collection, moonlight on water  (2016). She is tanka editor of Under the Basho.