I shed my shoes in her studio, stroll along the pencil lines and watch her create a private world for two. I sit in my favorite chair and come into focus with each new stroke and whisper of pencil on pad. Outside the wind bumps black-bottomed clouds against Treetop Ridge; April showers bloom. Arthritis in my left knee howls with the weather. She erases the knee, redraws it without the pain. The lunch of farmer's stew and cornbread settles me down to a doze. She erases the bluster, replaces it with a daffodil day. I smile, she draws my mouth. I wiggle my toes, she sketches a lap robe. The soft scratch of pencil on pad captures my contented sigh. Dewell H. Byrd Eureka, Calfornia |
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| DEWELL H. BYRD, 78, Eureka, retired public school administrator, began writing poetry at 71, after encouragement of his wife of 58 years. Besides state SPL awards, he was 2008 National Senior Poet Laureate runner up. He has published two books and one broadside of poems. He is a Capricorn. |