Sometimes she loves innocence,
her first house of words. The window
in which blue light scuds forever.

The garden of small, tended trees
that shed a pleasant noise and scent
and day-bright shadows on the wall.

Sometimes she remembers tended light
as truer light. How it soothed her,
how she loved it in return.

All the light seems unkempt now.
Unmendable. Unsayable.

Patricia Nelson has a new book, Monster Monologues, forthcoming in 2024 from Fernwood Press.