White blossoms sudsing, petals falling onto the streets, 
chasing one another into doorways. 

Wind has blown the cobwebs away from the mountains 
which stand chilled and white against the rain-washed sky. 

I pass a schoolyard, hear children 
at play, shouting and laughing. 

It is possible to love this world even with so much sadness in it. 
My sister’s body is being prepared for cremation today. 

Her family goes about their tasks, remembering to notice 
bulbs poking through the soil, the rain temporarily gone. 

This is California after all. It is February. 
The foothills are already green with spring. 

Patricia L. Scruggs

is the author of one poetry collection, Forget the Moon. Her work has been nominated recently for a Pushcart Prize, and has appeared in Burningword Literary Journal, Crab Creek Review, Cultural Weekly [now Cultural Daily], Inlandia, MacQueen’s Quinterly, ONTHEBUS, Rattle, RipRap, and Spillway, among others; as well as in these anthologies: 13 Los Angeles Poets, So Luminous the Wildflowers, and Beyond the Lyric Moment.

Born in Colorado, Patricia spent ten formative years in Alberta, Canada before taking root in Southern California. She earned her MFA at California State University, Fullerton. Now a retired art teacher, she and her husband of 60+ years are parents of two and grandparents of three.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Contemporary Stuff in Burningword Literary Journal (July 2023)

⚡ A Dazzle of Zebras Escapes From a Maryland Farm in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 12, March 2022)