MIDWINTER PURCHASE

Marcella's Feast Day, this one

at Lowe's Hardware buying carpet.

The short blue-blood marriage

in Rome, and another offer

she refuses. Better to put food

in poor people's stomachs

than money in a rich person's purse.

All this from my phone

as contract gets written.

Jerome wrote her letters

as she corrected his translations

of scripture, calmed his temper.

How we know things.

How we approach silence ourselves.

Jim Bodeen

31 January 2018