when I met her on the ramp she stepped to one side on sandaled feet handed me a golden clasp as she continued up and I went down time stopped as we pulled the cart away heavy she dropped to perdition neck broken hands out-flung in one useless effort to undo tales twisted by foreign tongues and pens perspectives skewed facts up-ended by the gossip of a thousand historians today I weave new battles on her ruined reputation
*
JOANNA M. WESTON. Canada. Has one cat, multiple spiders, a herd of deer,
and two derelict hen-houses. Her middle-reader, ‘Frame and The McGuire’,
published by Tradewind Books 2015; and poetry, ‘A Bedroom of Searchlights’,
published by Inanna Publications, 2016. Other books listed at her blog:
http://www.1960willowtree.wordpress.com/