Frannie Lindsay: “The Best Window”
THE BEST WINDOW
He loved to pretend he could hear
the tossed-off hosannas of finches and titmice
he even would ask her to open the window
nearest the birch
and latch the brake on his wheelchair
so he faced the sunset he’d learned to imagine
and he would slide his hand deep
in the breeze, unbuttoned for him, already
wide with the quiet of lilacs
and he would let his hearing aid slip out of place
as he settled his buttocks into the cushion
he needed now that the tumor pressed
on his pelvis
as he smiled and spread his listening
like an old well-traveled blanket
over the living room’s chill
Frannie Lindsay’s sixth volume of poetry, The Snow’s Wife, was released in 2020 from Cavankerry Press. Her awards include the May Swenson Award, the Perugia Prize, the Benjamin Saltman Award, the Washington Prize, The Missouri Review Prize, as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry, and numerous periodicals such as Yale Review, Atlantic Monthly, Plume, Under a Warm Green Linden, and Field.