Sheffer Crossword 6 25 Practicing Scales, Staying Nimble


Sunset, dock, a woman about to clip
her nails reflects that money can buy
such pedicures in peach tinged spas
this peach from the dusk bloomed lake
pinking these tanned hands she used
long years ago for scales but now to
trim grape and Virginia Creeper vines,
this act she will soon consummate as
light holds her, softens her gently.
Next door they mouth Nefarious white,
think they've imagined her, forks
glancing off tough hazelnuts in salads,
second glass, slightly looped, early
season, no yellow jackets to shoo,
fruitstand watermelon, corn on the cob,
awash in spinach, beans and snap
peas, staked tomatoes only yellow
blooms. Juniper shadow looms and
blots her shadow. If she were stoic,
she'd think, so what, this fading, dry
witted, dry eyed, no whimpering plod.
She recalls when every new idea
discovered her, an exotic orchid
hard and shiny as painted toenails.