Issue Thirty-Eight - Summer 2021

Anticipatory Set

By Donna Isaac

Where does the bee go after the hollyhock?
A stick boy with a blue balloon waited to see,
the bumble so ripe in summer air.

Doesn’t everyone watch and wait?
The ice is out on the lake.
Sky enough for bluebirds, flycatchers.

What else is coming?
The eagle cam shows a clutch of three eggs.
Amazon package on the porch.

Why are we the lucky ones?
Earth unscorched, bodies in motion.
A starburst heart on a sonogram.

When will we be together?
It will be autumn before we know it.
We’ll have cake.

Copyright 2021 Isaac

Donna Isaac is a teaching artist and organizer of community readings (Literary Lights) and workshops through the League of MN Poets. She holds degrees from James Madison University, the University of Minnesota, and Hamline University. Published poetry work includes Footfalls (Pocahontas Press); Tommy (Red Dragonfly Press); Holy Comforter (Red Bird Chapbooks); and Persistence of Vision (Finishing Line Press). Her work also appears in journals such as The Saint Paul Almanac and The Penn Review .

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