Barbara Daniels’ book, Rose Fever was published by WordTech Press, and the chapbooks Black Sails, Quinn & Marie, and Moon Kitchen by Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press. Her poetry has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review and elsewhere. She received three fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
WRITING ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Every day I wanted to quit
the endless printouts on perf-strip
paper, crossouts, revisions,
slashing red pens. Words fought
away from us like flopping
sails in crazy winds.
At first when you told me
I’d misplaced a comma, fierce
tears. I haven’t forgotten
the syntax of walking beside you—
hot baths, long talks. It was you
I loved fiercely. I no longer
know the rules for the hyphen.
Do you remember, dear one,
what part of speech is “all”?
GUARDING THE BURROW
In quiet twilight
a burrowing owl
is slow to climb up
and stand
like a GI Joe
left behind in the dirt
of the baseball field.
He looks ahead,
the browned grass
of Cape Coral
moving around him.
He watches walkers
and carefully turns away.
Now he flutters a little,
looks back toward
his burrow, remembering
what? Maybe when
he was small, at war
with his brothers?
Or his dead mate
calling him home?
