STILL LIFE

I go to the garden

with my steely shears,

snip the stems of the iris

with purple lips,

drop them into a vase

clear as rain;

place them by the window

to admire

while I rest

my killing hand.

Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno's book, Slamming Open the Door (Alice James Books), a memoir in poetry form about the murder of her daughter, was among the ten best-selling books of poetry in the U.S. in 2009. Bonanno has been the Founding Director of Musehouse: A Center for the Literary Arts, in Philadelphia, PA since 2011.