Friday, January 22, 2016

Double or Nothing


via Unsplash

Because temperatures were in the single digits,
I threw on the old red barn coat
I used to wear for winter dog walks.

I saw you looking at the frayed cuffs,
the faded canvas,
the corduroy collar.

I've owned this coat longer than you've been alive.
What do you own now that will last that long?
Probably nothing.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016




Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Stijn Nieuwendijk


I began my day
with thoughts about 
racial and economic 
inequality

and I read the news
of the Afghan woman
whose nose was cut off
by her husband.

Then I spent
twenty minutes
drawing the opening
amaryllis buds

and the only thing
in my mind was this
everyday miracle.
Nothing else.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016



I wrote these poems in response to the Ditty of the Month Challenge that Douglas Florian offered up at Michelle's Today's Little Ditty to write a poem about nothing.