Although it was warm, and warm
was what she’d been missing.
Back to Madrona’s safe peel
and smooth, its flesh of hers.
Leaf stubborn. Scars deep as roots,
lips of black-tailed deer.
Finches rising in the fields,
thistles gathering without.
Porches with broken supports,
oranges too soft for morning.
Irises catch more light
than she thought coming.
 
  __________________________________________________________

Jenifer Browne Lawrence lives in a seaside community near Seattle, Washington. A finalist for the 2005 James Hearst Poetry Prize, and winner of the Potomac Review's 2004 Poetry Contest, Jenifer's recent work is published or forthcoming in the North American Review, Court Green and the Potomac Review. Blue Begonia Press will publish Jenifer's first book One Hundred Steps from Shore in 2006.   __________________________________________________________ home