Susan Shea

Misled
 
When we first moved to the forest
we flourished with the feeders and the fed
 
luring the wordless ones to our seeds
amused to see them standing in a row
 
deer raccoon squirrel under birds
splashing trail mix from above
 
until their numbers grew, until ten deer
surrounded my idling car before dawn
 
hunting me down
 
a mere commuter trying to get
to my own honeypot watching
 
one put his nose right on my
driver's glass, making his eyes speak
right into my apprehended mind
 
he begged with dead-eyed urgency
telling me he needed seeds and corn
 
to keep him from becoming a ghost
before the morning
 
broke this day wide open
making me bright enough
to see the cost of dependency
to see what I had done
 

 
Good-Bye
 
My father was so mystified
and forsaken when the
neighbor woman revealed
that my mother appeared
to her, bathed in soft white light
 
waking her from her dream
to say farewell, moments after
she had died, she smiled
 
leaving him to wonder why
she didn't wake him up
to share this moment before dawn
 
I think she knew he wouldn't
understand the smile that was
overtaking all that was
within her, greater than all
the moments that were gone
 
I think she knew that she would
see him on the other side of years
where elation and high spirits
 
never stop
never wait or live in tears
 

In the past year, Susan Shea made the full-time transition from school psychologist to poet. In that time, her poems have been accepted by publications that include: Invisible City, Ekstasis, MacQueen's Quinterly, Feminine Collective, Amethyst Review, Green Silk Journal, Flora Fiction, Last Leaves, The Write Launch, The Gentian, Across the Margin, October Hill Magazine, Litbreak Magazine, Beltway Poetry, Umbrella Factory Magazine, Foreshadow, New English Review and others. Her work was recently nominated for Best of the Net.