A POEM IN THE MIDST OF HISTORY, 2015

My husband and I go outside

without the dog on Saturday night

at the end of June to feel

the pleasant unusual coolness

of the air, to look up at the white moon,

not full, not half, not sliver, just

cloudless moon, stars and planets

we don’t bother naming.  We note

the tall mint garden, deep purple

lilies, grass and weeds fresh mowed.

Summer?  Yes, even this pleasant,

even this light breeze, this lit-up

night.  So not muggy, just good

night.  Good night.

Laura Lee Washburn is the Director of Creative Writing at Pittsburg State University in Kansas. She is the author of This Good Warm Place: 10th Anniversary Expanded Edition (March Street) and Watching the Contortionists (Palanquin Chapbook Prize).  Her poetry has appeared in such journals as Cavalier Literary Couture, Carolina Quarterly, Ninth Letter, The Sun, and Red Rock Review.