As the Days Grow Shorter

Bending lower, we fondle
chipped bowls and stained spoons.

Contentment is imperfect,
truth a cracked glass.

Open the cupboards, out tumble
yellowing memories.

Does order begin with chaos?
Can we believe

a little silver polish
will rub the ache from long days

or must we cling to sticky rings
for fear of being erased?

~ Susan Ioannou

Susan Ioannou is a Canadian essayist, children’s writer, and poet, and author of the writer’s guide A Magical Clockwork: The Art of Writing the Poem. Her most recent collection Looking Through Stone: Poems about the Earth blends science and imagination to celebrate geology, metals, minerals, and mining history (see www3.sympatico.ca/susanio/feature.html).

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