after “Proletarian Portrait”
by William Carlos Williams

a young woman
in ripped jeans

red curls tumbling
round her shoulders

hops on one foot
to the corner mailbox

beats her shoe
against blue metal

dislodges the pebble
pressing like a pea

into princess-tender
flesh of her sole

Ann Howells edited Ilya’s Honey for eighteen years. Recent books: So Long As We Speak Their Names (Kelsay Books, 2019) and Painting the Pinwheel Sky (Assure Press, 2020). Chapbooks Black Crow in Flight and Softly Beating Wingswere published through contests. Ann’s work appears in Nimrod, Magma, and Crannog, among others. Contact: Ann Howells   annhwlls@gmail.com