Patchwork

By Mimi Whittaker

After Suzanne Cleary

The orange square
of loss
is folded neatly
on her lap

some yellow summer
not so long ago
broke her
into
sonnets

from a story
that varied
on happily ever after

lying on her back
in green grass
she can still
get lost
listening to birds
and watching clouds
parade
like fuzzy omens

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Mimi Whittaker lives in Northern California. Her work appears in California Quarterly, Fish Magazine (Ireland), Blue Mountain Review, and various publications. She has authored five books of poetry and two nonfiction books. Her work is informed by the people in her life, and despite many urgings, she has never gotten her ears pierced—check back when she’s 80!