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Driveway

2/28/2019

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A blue jay landed on the porch railing today
searching for food usually out by this time of day.
She found leftover bits on the floor and stairs.
She looked around but saw no feeder then flew away.

The sun rose higher in the sky,
butterflies sipped nectar from the flowers,
bees did their drunken dance from one flower to the next.
The sun as bright as the day before,
as tomorrow will be.

The gravel driveway lay empty for hours so
a rabbit dared to taste the grass alongside it.
Other birds, cardinals, then two doves flew
down for brunch and pecked at yesterday’s remnants.

Then came the roar of a car up that driveway.
The rabbit sprung into the woods,
the cardinals and doves flew to the trees,
the butterflies and bees just continued.

The doors slowly opened.
A person came out of each, all wearing black.
Slowly, they walked past the butterflies and bees,
then past the rabbit’s path,
past where the birds had pecked for seeds.

Shortly, a woman came outside wearing colorful clothing,
carrying the bird feeder. She stretched to hang it high on the porch.
She looked older today.

​
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Leave a Reply.

    Susan J. Mitchell

    Susan J. Mitchell has been anthologized in Motif: Writing by Ear (Motif Books, 2009) and Motif: Come What May (Motif Books, 2010). She has written the following books: Snapshots (Heart to Heart Publishing, 2013), Directionally Challenged (but finding my way home) (Old Seventy Creek Publishing, 2014) and After the Heroin: A Mother’s Story in Poetry (Old Seventy Creek Publishing, 2017). Susan has been published in Lady! Literary Magazine.  Susan is also a photographer.  She lives and works in southeastern  Kentucky.

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  • Fall
    • Tayler Karinen
    • Benjamin Lindsey
    • Patrick Harrington
    • Rich Ives
    • Kelly Kotewa
    • Craig Rodgers
    • Laura Fletcher
    • Jen McConnell
    • Remi Skytterstad
  • Past Issues
    • YEAR ONE >
      • Issue 1: October >
        • Dalton Day
        • Camila Maldonado
        • Elizabeth Burton
        • Daniel Kay
        • Shelby Bevins-Sullivan
        • Ryan Havers
      • Issue 2: November >
        • Rob Sturma
        • Candi V. Auchterlonie
        • Christopher Mulrooney
        • William James
        • Andrew Rhys Young
        • Michael Cormack
        • Kayla Pongrac
      • Issue 3: December >
        • Ann Huang
        • Peter Vanderberg
        • John Sweet
        • Daniel von der Embse
        • Rebecca Dutsar
        • Sarah Kersey
        • Geramee Hensley
      • Issue 4: January >
        • Stacey Balkun
        • Nolan Liebert
        • Charles Bane Jr.
        • Carly Gordon
        • Yoni Hammer-Kossoy
        • Bryan Harvey
        • Jonathan May
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        • Meggie Royer
        • I. S. Jones
        • John O'Connor
        • Daniel von der Embse
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        • Joseph Lisowski
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        • Clair Dunlap
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        • Shannon Austin
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        • Davon Loeb
        • Paul Beckman
        • Lydia Havens
        • William Butler
        • Robert A. Kaufman
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      • Issue 13: October >
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        • John Pistelli
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        • Joshua Robert Long
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        • Naima Woods
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        • Stelth Ulvang
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        • Ron Gibson
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        • Jefferson Navicky
        • Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad
        • Simon Perchik
      • Issue 24: September >
        • Sally J. Johnson
        • Lewis Mundt
        • April Vázquez
        • Emma Hutson
    • YEAR THREE >
      • Issue 25: October >
        • Peter Weltner
        • Nicholas Morris
        • Ola Faleti
        • Phoebe Nicholson
      • Issue 26: November >
        • Effy Fritz
        • Maxwell Radwin
        • David Atkinson
        • Eddy Jordan
      • Issue 27: December >
        • Jon Bennett
        • Stephanie Valente
        • Leigh Cheak
      • Issue 28: January >
        • Adrienne Novy
        • John Grabski
        • Fay Sachpatzidis
        • Paulie Lipman
        • Sarah David
      • Issue 29: February >
        • Ron Gibson Jr.
        • Amanda Kabak
        • Travis Naught
        • Allen Forrest
        • Susan Monaghan
      • Issue 30: March >
        • Hannah Larrabee
        • ​Lino Anunciacion
        • Karese Burrows
        • Reneé Bibby
        • Liz Howard
        • Kalani Pickhart
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        • Nina Murray
        • Daniel Blokh
        • Benjamin Harnett
        • Wheeler Light
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        • Terry Ann Wright
        • Craig Loomis
        • Thaddeus Rutkowski
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        • Ailish Woollett
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        • Alex Ivey
        • Hazem Fahmy
        • Jennifer Moore
      • Issue 34: July >
        • Christine No
        • Sarah Destin
        • Claire Hopple
        • Maura Lee Bee
      • Issue 35: August >
        • Luisana Cortez
        • Aza Pace
        • Carrie Chappell
        • Adam Lock
      • Issue 36: September >
        • Jill Mceldowney
        • Leon Kortenkamp
        • Sarah Jones
        • Darren Demaree
    • YEAR FOUR >
      • Issue 37: October >
        • Hannah Stone
        • William Doreski
        • Sarah Wetzel
        • C. T. Salazar
      • Issue 38: November >
        • Kristen Ploetz
        • Stephanie Rael
        • Brittany Frederick
        • Jay Sheets
        • Andy Cashmore
      • Issue 39: December >
        • Taylor Mali
        • Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
        • John Williams
        • Iskandar Haggarty
        • Donald Hubbard
        • Kenneth Otani
        • Alex Miller
      • SPRING >
        • Simon Perchik
        • Lino Anunciacion
        • Colleen Rich
        • Donia Mounsef
        • Nitzan Meltzer Watman
        • Ann Hillesland
        • DJ Swykert
      • SUMMER >
        • Cynthia X. Hua
        • Heidi Seaborn
        • Daniel Nester
        • Ginnah Howard
        • Jonathan Bracker
      • FALL >
        • William James
        • Laura Bentley
        • Ally Ang
        • Kurt Luchs
        • Joanna Hoffman
      • Winter >
        • Danny Caine
        • Emma Wang
        • Maria McLeod
        • Darren Demaree
        • Susan J. Mitchell
      • SPRING >
        • Sandra Kolankiewicz
        • Michael O'Neill
        • Lino Anunciacion
        • Katherine Fallon
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  • Contact
  • Harpoon Books