Jean LeBlanc

Winter in Our Small World

When we were young and just starting out, it seemed practical to build the woodshed far from the house, close to where he chopped our stove-length winter warmth. To be near him I’d help stack. Everything is practical in youth. Everything is practical in summer. The clothesline, too, strung from woodshed to the old apple tree the deer loved. That’s gone now, of course. What’s left is too far, too heavy, too dear, too late, too low, too much of a reach, too much of a walk.

stickfigure trees
every child’s drawing
comes true

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About the Author

Jean LeBlanc lives in northwestern New Jersey. She has recently retired from teaching college writing and literature. Her most recent collection is Terrible Terrain: Poems Inspired by the Life of Lavinia Dickinson (Shanti Arts Publishing, 2023). 

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