EARLY MORNING
The woman emerged from the forest
behind the house, as if she’d become lost
in an intricate dream, or a fairy tale:
as if she’d been wandering in the wood
for so long that her hair had turned gray
and her clothes were worn to rags.
It was one of those cool, gray mornings
where the mist clings to the treetops,
and one of the stories in the newspaper
was about a mysterious shower of apples
falling from the sky over a small British town,
and any otherworldly thing seemed possible.
I was sitting on the back porch with a cup
of hot coffee in my hand, steam rising
in the cold air, and I watched as if in a dream
as the woman slowly grew closer.
Her hair, fine as cobwebs, was pulled up
in a knot at the back of her head,
and the pale fabric of her nightgown
dragged behind her in the thick grass.
I set my cup on the table and rose.
It would take only a moment
to walk down the wooden steps
and cross the grass to meet her,
to stand close enough to see her face,
deeply lined, still soft from sleep.
I already knew that she would
mistakenly call me by her daughter’s name,
and I would take her inside for a blanket
and a cup of hot tea, and together,
we would sit near a bowl full of roses
and look through the phone book
for the familiar number
that she could no longer recall.
But for as long as I walked down
the wooden steps and crossed the thick grass
she was still wandering out of the forest,
in search of elusive words of advice or a magic ring,
or the single kiss that would turn back time
and break the spell.
This selection is from Leah Browning’s chapbook, In the Chair Museum, available from dancing girl press. Purchase your copy here!
Leah Browning is the author of three nonfiction books for teens and pre-teens and three chapbooks. Her most recent chapbook, In the Chair Museum, was published by Dancing Girl Press in 2013. Browning’s fiction, poetry, essays, and articles have previously appeared in publications including Queen’s Quarterly, Queen’s Feminist Review, 42opus, The Saint Ann’s Review, Blood Orange Review, 300 Days of Sun, Corium Magazine, Heron Tree, The Citron Review, Halfway Down the Stairs, Sweet: A Literary Confection, Dressing Room Poetry Journal, and Per Contra, as well as on a broadside from Broadsided Press, on postcards from the program Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf, and in several anthologies. Her fourth chapbook, Out of Body, is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press. In addition to writing, Browning serves as editor of the Apple Valley Review. Her personal website is located at www.leahbrowning.com.
Erin Elizabeth Smith is the Creative Director at the Sundress Academy for the Arts and the author of two full-length collections, The Fear of Being Found (Three Candles Press 2008) and The Naming of Strays (Gold Wake Press 2011). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Mid-American, 32 Poems, Zone 3, Gargoyle, Tusculum Review, and Crab Orchard Review. She teaches a bit of everything in the English Department at the University of Tennessee and serves as the managing editor of Sundress Publications and Stirring.
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