Glass and Shiny Rings, I Miss My Mother
Shanti Weiland

Pop beads and white
noise from the swamp
cooler changes the trouble
with her sleep, all
day.  The subduing effect of
the sun.  Salt on the
slug. The fly on my
sucker.  Imaginary times in
the cork tree.

I climb the palms, so
tall and emaciated, they
curve for the Santa Ana’s.
Capture sow bugs, release them
for ransom.  Animals, on my
level, feel compelled
to approach.

Shanti Weiland is author of the chapbook Daughter En Route and winner of the Joan Johnson award in poetry.  She received her Ph.D. in English at University of Southern Mississippi and currently teaches at University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
She has been published this year in Pure Francis, Off The Coast, Imitation Fruit, Tattoo Highway, Verdad Magazine, and Language and Culture.
She is currently circulating her manuscript A Beautiful, Fuchsia Hell.

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