Five Poems by Randi Ward

Gate

Oh merciful

gate, break

these legs

for me

so I don’t

have to

walk home.

Procession

Blowing

through red

lights on

our way

to the graveyard—

death

stops for no one.

Daisy

Pluck a ray

from the eye

of day; each petal

is a flower—

tossed

away.

Old Timer

Whittling corn

flowers from water

maple twigs

in samara rain.

Widow

Wandering

fence lines

limp

as a morning

glory’s spent

petals.

Randi Ward is a writer, translator, lyricist, and photographer from West Virginia. She earned her MA in Cultural Studies from the University of the Faroe Islands and is a recipient of the American-Scandinavian Foundation's Nadia Christensen Prize. Ward is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee whose work has appeared in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Asymptote, Beloit Poetry Journal, Cimarron Review, The Cortland Review, Thrush Poetry Journal, Vencil: Anthology of Contemporary Faroese Literature, World Literature Today, and other publications. For more information, visit: www.randiward.com/about