Dancing on the Sun by Helen Shanley

The art student called his water-color sketch “Girl with Leaves,” sold it for lunch money. Long curls relax over her shoulder. Her wide white hat’s not drawn, but framed by sunlight; the shadows all are pools of sun and leaves; you know she’s firmly seated, but...

Bereaved Lady Meditates by Helen Shanley

In the center where nothing pulls her apart she lets go of chicken-fat indecisions; like Baudelaire dreaming the smokestacks of Paris she no longer flinches at her fate. Through dreams astound with their cryptic knowledge of details from her daytime world they keep...

A Green Poem by Helen Shanley

Upon this green remembrance a thousand flowering hours have shaken gold-sweet bloom into our differing rooms, and one green miracle shelling love out of the pod of time frees your world from mine.