A Tidings of Magpies

by Joyce Sutphen Dr. Zhivago  was playing at the Paramount Theater in St. Cloud. That afternoon, we went into Russia, and when we came out, the snow was falling—the same snow that fell in Moscow. The sky had turned black velvet. We’d been through the Revolution and the frozen winters. In the Chevy, we waited for the heater to melt ice on the windshield, clapping our hands to keep warm. On the highway, these two things: a song from  Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and that semi-truck careening by. Now I travel through the dark without you and sometimes I turn up the radio, hopeful the way you were, no matter what.

by Barry Spacks Clear now of our long struggle I can hear your voice, its strength the sweet coldness of river water. And I can see you as in the photograph with your father and sister, tall pretty girl, pigtailed and freckled, led, misled, until you doubted your beauty, body, that you were one among us, a person, like any other. And, given distance, I think of you becoming smaller, but cheerful, the way the old are with short white hair and an easiness you'd never know before, and me, incredibly, not there.

by Laurie Zimmerman Here I am in the yard standing at the edge of the garden— this used to be yarrow tangling the stalks of black-eyed Susan and the purple fizzed Joe-Pye weed, and this, pink-cupped mallow, over there a profusion of wild geranium I would pull to relocate all summer. Here I am before the shrubbery of ragged forsythia, roots crusted into a muck of fall leaves, rake loose in my hand— this used to be grass under my feet and this, a marigold bed, over there a yellow dog, two white chairs turned toward the road.

Unknown Legend by Neil Young She used to work in a diner Never saw a woman look finer I used to order just to watch her float across the floor She grew up in a small town Never put her roots down Daddy always kept movin, so she did too. Somewhere on a desert highway She rides a harley-davidson Her long blonde hair flyin in the wind Shes been runnin half her life The chrome and steel she rides Collidin with the very air she breathes The air she breathes. You know it aint easy You got to hold on She was an unknown legend in her time Now shes dressin two kids Lookin for a magic kiss She gets the far-away look in her eyes. Somewhere on a desert highway She rides a harley-davidson Her long blonde hair flyin in the wind Shes been runnin half her life The chrome and steel she rides Collidin with the very air she breathes The air she breathes. please note: photo by fhotogamy and song from Rachel Getting Married

When you are old and gray and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face; And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead And hid his face among a crowd of stars.