It’s autumn. Leaves have taken over
the back porch and I sit at the
window, hungry for soup.
You have been gone for
years now. I am used to the color
of your absence: white
that was the edge of
pain is now a border of comfort,
holds me in the frame
and lets me speak
with measured words
of what I once could not
utter without drifting away.
The last heat of Indian summer
shimmers off the brickwork despite
the twist of limbs
under a sullen sky.
I gather up carrots, tomatoes,
onion, a heavy pot, and a
recipe I taught myself.
Soup, curled by the fire
will be a welcomed comfort,
a prayer against the cold.
Wendy Brown-Báez is a writer, teacher, performance poet, and installation artist. She is the author of the poetry collections Ceremonies of the Spirit and Transparencies of Light. Wendy is the creator of Writing Circles for Healing and the recipient of a 2012 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant to present poetry and writing workshops to nonprofits. She is the after-school writing instructor at Face to Face Academy in Saint Paul, where she is kept on her toes.