Aphid Ranch

While the ants herd aphids 

to the tender growth at the tip 

of the lemon verbena, preparing

to milk them for sugar, 

I flag the book I'm reading 

with sticky notes, each small slip 

a drop of honeydew for later.

[LSS, 9/10/20]

Book of Days

We have farmed the land

of this marriage more than

forty years, turning back

into its soil every unbearable 

darkness, every hellish day,

craving this work, this endless

labor that is the very thing

keeping us alive.

[LSS, 9/10/20]