Where are you, Poet? Almost time for the red bud trees,
and the golden rods are growing urgent
I am searching new things in the intense air, and the
large voices of the young
What song is it, driving out toward March,
in a chaos of wild bird songs, and a timid green moving
on the dull stick trees
There is a flickering laugh slipping
across the face of sorrow,
a limbo in an ox heart
And there you are, with chapped hands,
hiding a strain of losses in the first lily 

PHIBBY VENABLE’s work has been published in 2River, Poetrybay, Southern Ocean Review, Sow’s Ear, Voices, the Appalachian Journal and various other national & international magazines. She lives in Abingdon, Virginia and works actively in human & animal rescue. Author of one novel, two chapbooks, one book of short stories, and six collections of poetry, much of her work depicts the Appalachian & Blue Ridge Mountains.