Beth Oast Williams

Geometry

She carves the land into careful
edges of ownership, grooves

dug straight through tended skin. 

Watch as she stacks
stone in hopes the sea will not

encroach on grass. How loud 

the water’s laugh, the natural wiggle
of the Elizabeth River.

Yard is just a temporary 

definition of measurement.
Don’t blink as we inch closer

to another spring, restored 

order. Wait as she collects
broken limbs left from last night’s

wind. How she bows to assemble 

a little pile of worship,
twig against twig, the next nor’easter

just over her shoulder.

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Beth Oast Williams is the author of the chapbook Riding Horses in the Harbor (Finishing Line Press, 2020). Her poetry has been accepted for publication in Nimrod, Salamander, Leon Literary Review, SWWIM, One Art, Dialogist, Invisible City and Rattle's Poets Respond, among others, and nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize.