Issue Twenty-Five - Winter 2015

One Minnesota Winter

By Cheryl Weibye Wilke

I craved the taste of orange-
flavored baby aspirin. In fact,
my mother caught me
standing on top of the toilet
to open the mirrored door
of her white tin medicine
cabinet and reach for the small
glass bottle. It was the taste of Florida
citrus and sunshine that hooked
me. The V-shape of bathing
beauties flying on water
skis in Cypress Gardens set against
splashes of crimson and pink
Southern Belle flowers. A place
I once visited in utero.

Copyright 2015 Wilke

Cheryl Wilke was born and raised on the small-town prairies of central Minnesota. She is author of two poetry chapbooks and Full Wolf Moon, her first children’s picture book, released in August 2014. Wilke’s spiritual, award-winning works appear in Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose, Plainsongs, Prairie Schooner, Red Earth Review, Seven Hills Review, The Penwood Review, and Water-Stone Review. Wilke lives in Minneapolis with her husband, Mark, daughter, Christiana, and adopted shelter dog, Mabeline.

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