The Widow Discovers the Secret of Leona Canyon
by Lenore Weiss
Before dog-walkers with squadrons of panting beasts
pull up in SUVs, I arrive early—a woman without a pooch
who can be trusted to make a game of counting packets of shit
set aside for some doggie walker’s return trip.
I start early, knot a hoodie around my waist,
hiking in the sun I want to lose myself,
balance on a branch of a buckeye tree
with its candelabra of mock lilacs,
walk past hemlock that lace the trail,
everything is a blaze of white
as spring marries summer and loosens her veil.
I dip my hands in water and wash my face.
Anna’s hummingbird, with her red crown
and red spotted throat, sips right along with me.
Shepherds follow their off-leash flock up the canyon.
Lenore Weiss (blog) is an award-winning writer who has made her home in New York City, Chicago, and now Oakland, California. She edited From the Well of Living Waters: Voices of a 21st Century Synagogue (2011). Recent collections include Tap Dancing on the Silverado Trail, from Finishing Line Press, and Mother and Other Love to be published in 2012 by West End Press.
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