so here we are in the front yard marketing done vegetables picked bills paid finally outside under the pear tree dog on the lawn you in the wicker chair rolling cicada song dog staring off at distant barking neighbors’ voices float by we’re committed to this space we’re committed to the perimeter contained won’t cross the line from shade to sunlight it’s August hot dog rolls on his back eyes closed maybe napping lies ahead but no cardinal and cicada leaf rustling breeze blue jay house wren car driving past prop plane overhead if extracted each one by one replaced the rattling pine squirrel with carpenter bee would it be the same day was it the same last August the parts are always the same it’s what we make of them that changes why we’re sitting here doing nothing
Michelle Geoga is a writer and artist from Southwest Michigan. She has a BFA in art and an MFA in writing from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Her work has been published in the Little Patuxent Review, Third Wednesday, Unleash Lit, Cleaver and elsewhere. She was the beneficiary of a residency at Yaddo based on an early version of a novel in progress and a finalist for The Big Moose prize by Black Lawrence Press.