DAY DRAWING DOWN | Irene Sherlock

This morning, frost-darkened blood
on my porch deck, a trail disappearing 
into the hoary winter lawn. 

I imagine a wild, injured thing, 
drawing shallow breaths 
beneath the pines it reached 

at the edge of my night yard. 
Now, day drawing down, 
a client sits across from me. 

Her son has overdosed again—
is somehow alive, she says. 
Again. 

Today, in her Al-Anon group, 
a woman told her 
Let go and let God. 

Now, she removes her red beret 
and tousled blonde hair escapes 
into the warm room. 

She finds my eyes. 
I say what I say. 

She mentions her daughter’s baby, 
just born. Beautiful, she says 
about the child. At session’s end

she lifts herself, grasps her handbag, 
makes her way across the carpet 
and out to the porch, 

turning to wave and with one hand, 
closes the door on everything 
wild, untamed, injured.

Irene Sherlock is a dual-licensed marriage and family therapist and alcohol and drug counselor in private practice in Southbury, Connecticut. Her poems, essays and short stories have appeared in a variety of literary magazines and anthologies. Her poetry chapbook "Equinox" was published by Finishing Line Press.

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