<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div>Heart Work<div><br></div><div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.875em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Monday. Bronze sunlight<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">on the worn gray rug<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">in the dining room where Viva sits<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">playing her recorder. Pain-ripened sunlight<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">I nearly wrote, like the huge<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">vine-ripened tomato<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">my friend brought yesterday<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">from her garden, to add to our salad:<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">meaning what comes</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.875em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); orphans: 2; widows: 2;">in its time to its own<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">end, then breaks<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">off easily, needing no more<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">from summer.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.875em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); orphans: 2; widows: 2;">The notes<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">of some medieval dance<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">spill gracefully from the stream<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">of Viva's breath. Something<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">that had been stopped</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.875em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); orphans: 2; widows: 2;">is beginning to move: a leaf<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">driven against rock<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">by a current<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">frees itself, finds its way again<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">through moving water. The angle of light</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.875em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); orphans: 2; widows: 2;">is low, but still it fills<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">this space we're in. What interrupts me</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.875em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); orphans: 2; widows: 2;">is sometimes an abundance. My sorrow too,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">which grew large through summer<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">feels to me this morning</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.875em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); orphans: 2; widows: 2;">as though if I touched it<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">where the thick dark stem</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.875em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); orphans: 2; widows: 2;">is joined to the root, it would release itself<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">whole, it would be something I could use.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.875em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.875em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Anita Barrows</div></div></body></html>