Margaret Dornaus

Learning Center Café

It’s difficult to tell her age. She could be 15, or 25. But then I notice how she drags one foot behind the other like a wounded house sparrow as she approaches, and I wonder if she might be older. Wonder too how difficult her workdays might be, or how I might in some small way make life better for her.

She sets my chicken salad down and waits for me to speak. Thank you is all I think to say before she blurts out I love your purse. Her supernumerary words performed as if they’re part of a recitatif that somehow holds the key to both our stories.

steadfast . . .
a songbird’s chirruping
outside my window

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About the Author

Margaret Dornaus’ poetry appears in numerous journals and anthologies. Her first book, Prayer for the Dead: Collected Haibun & Tanka Prose (Singing Moon Press, 2016), tied for second place in the 2017 Haiku Society of America’s Mildred Kanterman Book Awards.