Excerpt #4

Unhindered, then, for a moment

we spent our time like a fall of golden coins--

wine and air and light at the end

at the end of the garden--

hemming and hawing over humming-

birds, or charming diagrams of them

and whether or not they make a sound.

They are quite violent,

these natives of the apple tree,

sometimes pictured as the lemon tree

across from the bar and parking lot

when I run out of red.

**

Laura McKee's work has appeared most recently in Denver Quarterly, Nimrod, and Identity Theory. She holds an MFA from the University of Washington and works at Cornish College of the Arts.  

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