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    Summer-Fall '23

    I didn't ask
    Carolyn Martin

    for another night      of raccoons        ransacking
    the lawn     and brazen skunks       digging up
    dahlias and mums      or     for a thunderous dawn
    sneering      gray clouds      and devouring
    any hint      of slivered blue      or     entertainment
    by a feral cat     stalking       naïve squirrels
    or the dozen      chickadees        sharing one more
    crumbling       suet cake      and     I didn’t ask
    Nature     how to love her      more      or Death
    how to hate him      less      until      windchimes
    tolled      and my mother     opened      light blue
    eyes      and breathed        a final breath

    ​

    Blissfully retired in Clackamas, Oregon, Carolyn Martin is a lover of gardening and snorkeling, feral cats and backyard birds, writing and photography. Her poems have appeared in more than 175 journals throughout North America, Australia, and the UK. Find out more at www.carolynmartinpoet.com.

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