December 2016
Dianna Henning
gammonmackinnon@diannahenning.com
gammonmackinnon@diannahenning.com
I live in Lassen County on six acres with my husband Kam and malamute Sakari. The trees and mountains inspire me; the solitude nourishes me. I run a workshop Thompson Peak Writers’ Workshop and have taught in prisons and schools. Work published in: The Red Rock Review, The Kentucky Review, The Main Street Rag and other magazines. Nominated for a Pushcart, Blue Fifth Review 2015. My third book Cathedral of the Hand published 2016 through Finishing Line Press. Website: www.diannahenning.com
When His Supply Grew Short
I made my former husband Mexican
wedding cake cookies last Christmas.
He rationed them to two a day, and when
the supply grew short, he halved them.
How little the heart spares; not even crumbs
brushed onto the floor where memory is at it again
solves anything, a scrub-brush and Ajax in her hands.
The distance between what we lived
and what’s remembered grows shorter.
My ex carries an anti-Vietnam placard
across the university quad. I am watching
from our third floor apartment and trace him on
the window before he disappears into Waterman Hall.
Years have passed and we are kind to each other now,
though distant. I mark our former marriage
on the holiday calendar, like when I traced him years back.
©2016 Dianna Henning
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to tell him or her. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is the beginning of community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -FF