by Angela Hoffman

I’ve been rearranged, turned upside down,
not sure how to walk in this world anymore. 
I question a love I thought would last forever. 
I taste it in my heart, rusty, like nails. 
My road forward is covered with leaves. 

Yet today the basil, beans, cucumbers, zucchini keep coming, 
and we are having our roof replaced,
warrantied for the time we spend living here, 
and a stranger in the store asked me, aren't these beautiful?
as she picked up the pins of autumn leaves.

Just un-shingle me with your deft hands down to my soul.
Then help me find what’s lost, hidden underneath.
I’ll re-right myself with my soles on solid ground
as I gather the bounty from the garden 
and eat its delights under a new roof.
Isn’t life beautiful?

Angela Hoffman’s poetry collections include Resurrection Lily (Kelsay Books, 2022) and Olly Olly Oxen Free (forthcoming, Kelsay Books, May 2023). She placed third in the WFOP Kay Saunders Memorial Emerging Poet in 2022. Her poems have been published internationally. She has written a poem a day since the start of the pandemic. Angela lives in rural Wisconsin.  

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