A Tidings of Magpies

Happiness by Joyce Sutphen This was when my daughters were just children playing on the rocky shore of the lake, their hair in braids, their bright-colored jackets tied around their waists. It was afternoon, the shadows falling away, their faces glowing with light. Whatever we said then (and it must have been happy; it must have been hopeful) is lost as I am now lost from that life I lived. This was when nothing that I wanted mattered, though all I wanted was happiness, pure happiness, simple as strawberries and cream in a saucer, as curtains floating from a window sill, as small pairs of shoes arranged in a row.

the lost women by Lucille Clifton i need to know their names those women i would have walked with jauntily the way men go in groups swinging their arms, and the ones those sweating women whom i would have joined after a hard game to chew the fat what would we have called each other laughing joking into our beer? where are my gangs, my teams, my mislaid sisters? all the women who could have known me, where in the world are their names? Yeah...I need some of this...Come on, summer! please note: photo by Ben Errol Thomas