For Herself
Dust settles across the old globe
with its forgotten countries—we
haven’t looked up Manchutikuo for years—
Still, those colors entertain us.
Sunlight is filtered through broad leaves
like butter, falling on a yard we don’t own.
Mushrooms change from mud gray
to a creamy white while I look
at her caring for our plants
and she doesn’t know I’m looking at her.
Mark J. Mitchell was born in Chicago and grew up in southern California. His latest poetry collection, Starting from Tu Fu, was just published by Encircle Publications. A new collection is due out in December from Cherry Grove. He is very fond of baseball, Louis Aragon, Miles Davis, Kafka and Dante. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, the activist and documentarian Joan Juster, where he makes his meager living pointing out pretty things. He has published 2 novels and three chapbooks and two full-length collections so far. Titles on request. A meager online presence can be found at https://www.facebook.com/MarkJMitchellwriter.
