The Sand Hill Review               http://www.sandhillreview.org 2009

The Decisions

Those November nights I slept on the bathroom floor

Ear to the heated celadon tile, hearing

some wind’s long-ago voice Get out of this Go

I was so scared Cold household panes shook and wires

hummed I told the lawyer Finish up This needs to stop

“Light Thickens” my poem made its way to the judge

It was moving he said mediating And despite

hellebores turning their pious faces to the ground

in one porous December evening I was free

Another month More nights on green azulejos

I need full sun May I please go away from here

The cracked foundation settled in its clay

Clouds parted and I sold and I left that old house

for an aged doll cottage Me clumsy in it

Coming in from midnight mass chilled hands dropped the keys

I had to call the watch commander

With his dog and my cat we broke in More panes shattered

that vitreous silence waiting for the board-up

“Why aren’t you hitched” he asked at 3:30 a.m.

What was he saying? “I think you should try again”

Elizabeth Chapman