A View from a Window
after the Charlottesville, VA race riots, August, 2017
The birds like to perch on the leafless tree.
“They have a better view of things,”my husband observed.
A better view whether they sit together,
or on separate branches. Clear all around
to rest a while, test the air, the wind where next to fly.
An artist said, “All I need is a framed window
to view life.” Life that offers the vagaries of weather,
a ballet of light on sun-splintered water,
an aerial show of suspended clouds
and only a squabble between gulls over a dropped clam.
All this far from hate-mongering
herds and white coned creatures wielding
torches and hurling words heavier than rocks.
Janet Krauss, a widely published poet, has two books published, Borrowed Scenery(Yuganta Press), and Through the Trees of Autumn(Spartina Press), 2005 and 2007, respectively. She was twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She retired in May, 2017 after 39 years of teaching writing and literature at Fairfield University where she received the Adjunct Award of the Year in 2006. She also enjoys teaching creative writing in the Bridgeport, CT schools. She has participated three times in the Wickford Art Association Poetry and Art exhibit. In addition, she is co-director of the poetry program of the Black Rock Art Guild in Bridgeport, CT. And she attends the Connecticut Poetry Society workshop at the Wilton Library.