The milk and eggs
on the shopping list
are not ornate, but necessary.

****************
The last bits of snow and ice
that hide in shadows and ditches,
like glacial remnants,
melt slowly to feed the fingerlakes
and other tributaries.

****************

In a basket of copper coins,
a quarter sits wedged,
ridge to surface,
but will be plucked out
and placed with others
of its own kind
for snacks, laundry
and games of chance.

****************

The door latch clicks
on the sliding glass door
to the back porch,
but she stills sees
the stack of opened mail on the kitchen counter
and the half-finished cup of ginseng tea.