Anna Cates
Not This Time
His eyes are a mercurial hazel. The color shifts with the hue of his garments, gray in some shirts, green in others. Beneath a narrow nose, his mouth is so small that—when we share a meal—he’ll complain if the spoon I give him is too big. He’ll say he can’t fit it in his mouth! (No spoon is too small for me.) But, small mouth aside, he is not without words. He is always making preposterous suggestions, that we run a pedestrian over when we’re out adventuring or “snort some lines of coke.”
“Maybe we could just shoot up,” I’ll return facetiously.
a white lily
baptized by rainwater
the stillness
About the Author
Dr. Anna Cates teaches writing, literature, and education online and has published a variety of books (poetry, fiction, and drama) through Cyberwit, Prolific Press, Red Moon Press, and wipfandstock.com. Her short form poetry collection, Love in the Time of Covid, won an Illumination Book Award. She resides in Wilmington, Ohio, with her two beautiful kitties.