by Linda Conroy
I didn’t know I’d left the door ajar,
but you came in and settled
quiet in the curve of a soft chair
beside the hearth.
Lately, absent-minded, I have lost
the habit of consistency,
a lifelong need to lock and bar
the threshold of my privacy.
Predictability, like a sturdy gate,
has hung between me and the world,
but now I inch my way back here
and light a fire in the grate.
Linda Conroy (she/her) is an observer of people and finds they offer a rich abundance for the creation of poetry, which recognizes and records the complexity and simplicity of human nature. Her poems have appeared in many journals, and in her poetry collections, Ordinary Signs and Familiar Sky.
Linda’s poem “As I Breathe” was featured in Winter Solstice Issue: Without Pause.